16 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jantjabt, 
French and German Asters. 
The engraving presented herewith exhibits, 
so far as can be done Jn black and white, the 
appearance:of a beautiful bouquet of Aster Flow¬ 
ers shown at the Agriculturist office recently, 
by John Wesley Jones, of Columbia Co., N. Y. 
One can hardly 
have an idea of 
the real beauty 
of these flowers, 
without seeing 
the blooms them¬ 
selves, or a colored 
picture of them, 
showing the bril¬ 
liant crimson, 
purple, blue, etc./' 
with the -inter¬ 
mediate colors. 
For the purpose" 
of raising seed for 
distribution t o 
our subscribers, 
we sowed nearly 
k acre with these 
improved asters, 
and never have 
we seen anything 
more beautiful in 
the floral line.— 
Perhaps no flow¬ 
er has undergone 
more changes 
and improve¬ 
ments within a 
brief period, then 
the aster. The 
single ray of “red, 
white, or blue,” 
has given place 
to the full quill¬ 
ed, Giant Empe¬ 
ror, Chrysanthe¬ 
mum flowered, 
Ranunculus o r 
button formed, 
Paeony. perfec¬ 
tion, etc., with 
every shade of 
color, running 
from pure -white 
to lilac, pink, and 
crimson; and 
from light laven¬ 
der to deep blue, 
with the various 
shades- intermin¬ 
gled in the same 
flower. Then in 
size, they range 
from the dwarf 
ranunculus-flow¬ 
ered, scarcely three-fourths of an inch in di¬ 
ameter, and growing on a stalk less than one 
foot high, to the giant sorts on three to four-feet 
stalks, with flowers two to three inches or more 
in diameter, and resembling the paeony in 
form and size, but greatly excelling it in beauty 
of petals. These great changes have been 
brought about by. carefully selecting seeds of 
the finest blooms, and giving them high culture, 
so as to change the stamens into petals. French 
and German florists, conspicuous among whom 
is M. Truffaut, have brought about these “ im¬ 
provements,” and made tips one of the most de¬ 
sirable flowers. Besides being one of the pret¬ 
tiest annuals, the aster is of very easy culture. It 
will flourish in any good garden soil, and may 
be sown in the open ground at any time in May, 
or June even, covering with one-fourth inch 
of finely pulverized soil. They are best sown 
in drills, 15 inches apart, or thinly massed 
in small plots, with the tallest sorts in the 
A BOUQUET OF FRENCH AND GERMAN ASTERS. 
and Engraved from the Flowers, as shown at the Office of the American Agriculturist, November, 1861. 
center. When practicable, it is desirable to 
sow a portion of the seeds in pots, under glass, 
early in April, or the last of March, and then 
transplant them into the open ground, in the 
border and elsewhere, when the ground is 
warm, and the weather settled. These, with 
seed sown in the open ground in May and 
June, will furnish a succession of beautiful 
blooms all through the Summer and Autumn, 
until severe frost cuts them down. It is unfor¬ 
tunate that the finest blooms supply so little seed 
for wide diffusion. The petals or .flower leaves 
in the most double sorts nearly or quite fill 
up the center, leaving little space for seed. 
Use of the Pruning 1 Knife during Winter. 
Mild weatbjsr in Winter is the pleasantest 
time for pruning, because we then have more 
leisure and can work more deliberately, be¬ 
cause we can see every part of the tree, and be¬ 
cause there is nothing on the ground to be in¬ 
jured by the feet, 
or by the falling 
branches, or their 
removal to the 
woodpile. It is 
the experience of 
every body who 
has pruned orna¬ 
mental trees, and 
especially apple 
trees much, that 
sometimes the 
scars will heal, 
and sometimes 
they will not— 
the wood often 
becoming soft, 
and penetrated 
by decay, and 
finally, seriously 
injuring the tree. 
It will be found 
that a limb less 
than two inches 
in diameter will 
seldom make any 
trouble in this 
way. Large limbs 
cut in the Win¬ 
ter, and particu¬ 
larly toward 
Spring,will bleed, 
often profusely, 
so soon as the 
sap starts. The 
sap in early 
Spring is very 
fluid, and has the 
property of 
“scalding,” that 
is, killing the live 
bark upon which 
it flows in any 
considerable 
quantity. Thus 
we often see 
where a large 
limb has been cut 
off, a decayed 
hole and a strip 
of dead bark or 
bare wood for a 
yard or more be¬ 
neath. After the 
leaves put out in 
the Spring, the 
sap becomes thickened and sluggish in its motion, 
so that when the first evaporation takes place 
on the fresh cut surface, none will flow out, 
while the wood itself remains hard and im¬ 
pervious to water, and the scar, however large, 
gradually heals over. On the whole, therefore, 
we advise never to cut off large limbs except 
after blooming time, though these may be part¬ 
ly lopped off, and reduced in size in Winter, 
so as to be conveniently removed altogether in 
May or June. To debar oneself the privilege 
of doing any winter pruning is, we find, to 
crowd work terribly in Spring, and to make this 
otherwise pleasant labor atrial and a bugbear. * 
and 9, Bouquet Pyramidal Asters. 
9, and 10, Truffaut Paeony Asters. 
