28 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 10, 1889. 
much as many have, but I have considered there are two forms of 
damping. One form damp3 from the base an l centre of the florets, 
gradually stealing over the bloom until it is useless ; and in the other, 
where the bloom is suddenly affected at the upper part and presents the 
appearance, of having been scalded with hot water. 
In the first form my opinion is it is chiefly caused by overfeeding 
and overwatering. To obtain the highly developed blooms we meet with 
in the prize stands at the exhibitions, it is necessary to assist them with 
manure, either in a liquid state from the farmyard, or some of the 
various chemical compounds to be had at the present day. While the 
plants are growing, manure judiciously applied is of great benefit to 
build up vigorous plants, especially when the pots are full of roots and 
there is little danger of turning the soil in the pots sour. At the 
approach of autumn—say the middle of September -the buds have all 
been taken, some perhaps five weeks, and the wood has become bard up 
to the buds, a few of the earliest will be showing colour. Owing to 
the heavy dews we have at this season the plants are unable to take up 
so much water as they have been accustomed to, and also partly because 
they are not making growth. But strong manures are continued at 
this stage to obtain size and substance in the florets. In my opinion 
they are necessary to bring the blooms to perfection, although we may 
lose a few, especially in the case of varieties that are especially sus¬ 
ceptible to damp. But I think care in watering the plants will reduce 
the evil to a minimum. By careful watering, I mean by applying water 
only when needed. If water is applied at this stage when the soil is 
wet, and especially if the air is charged with moisture, the plants cannot 
find an outlet for the superfluous moisture except in the most tender 
part of the plant—the bloom—leading with the first adverse weather to 
the decay of the florets called “ damping.” 
In the second form of “ damping ” the worst case I remember 
occurred about three seasons ago. We had a few days very hot and 
bright, succeeded by a sudden change to wet with a little fog ; it was 
about the third week in October, and the early blooms damped most 
severely atthe time. I well remember there was a general lament amongst 
the growers at the Floral Committee meeting we had a day or two after. 
But having another favourable change in the weather damping stopped, 
and in fact, I may say we were free from it for the rest of the season. 
As a grower I have had to guard against earliness, my plants having 
a tendency that way. Consequently, when housed, I used no fire heat 
while the weather kept favourable. When the atmosphere was not 
overcharged ■with moisture the blooms appeared all right, but with 
■rain or fog suddenly setting in the chief damp occurred. The fire 
would then be lighted and the pipes kept constantly warm, more or 
less according to the weather, but the fire was out at no time except on 
the morning of a bright day, to be lighted again in the afternoon. 
From the time the firing was commenced there was a reduction in 
damping. This leads me to conclude that the atmosphere and the sudden 
changes of the same have much to do with the damping, and especially 
where the blooms are suddenly affected 
Fire heat dispels the stagnant moisture and causes a buoyant motion 
in the air favourable to keeping the blooms. Where fire heat is first 
applied and blooms are opening, take great care to keep the house well 
ventilated, and to let the pipes warm gradually, or the sudden heat 
might cause a great quantity of moisture to ascend, and then be con¬ 
densed on the blooms, thus aggravating the evil it is intended to cure. 
Many blooms are annually lost by damping through leaving the 
-plants out of doors too long. As soon as the florets show they should 
be either removed under cover or otherwise protected, for when exposed 
to fogs and rain they will be damaged. Although they may not show 
any ill effects at the time they will certainly lose a number of florets 
before the blooms are fully expanded. Green fly is a'so the cause of 
some damping by infesting the blooms. The best means I have found 
to keep them under is to dust with tobacco powder during the summer, 
and immediately the plants are housed to fumigate two or three nights 
in succession, taking care to get fumigating material of good quality, 
which can be depended upon to do its work properly. Notwithstanding 
every precaution I found it necessary to fumigate three nights in suc¬ 
cession at the end of last October, but I found no ill effects from it, 
although large numbers we^e fully out. I was prepared to shade with 
tiffany afterwards, but dull days followed, and it was not necessary. 
Numbers of early blooms were lost this season through a kind of 
damping of the lower florets, which faded in the way a bloom would 
through age, although these had, perhaps, not finished their centres. 
I believe this is attributable to the foggy weather we had at the time, 
for with drier weather a great improvement at once became apparent, 
although, I think, blooms generally did not have the staying powers of 
an average season when we had more sun. I think this season the 
Chrysanthemums have suffered with most other plants. As this is such 
a very exceptional season I need not dwell on this matter, for after all 
our efforts are feeble without that prime agent the sun. In conclusion, 
whilst I think where high feeding is carried on for the production of 
high class blooms damping will be present to some extent in most 
seasons, I think the best safeguards against damp are careful water¬ 
ing and ventilating, a dry and airy atmosphere, avoiding as much as 
possible all sudden changes, and by the frequent use of stimulants 
rather than by strong doses occasionally. 
MIDWINTER CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
[lead by Mr. J. Kipling. Knebworth House Gardens, at the Cbry.-antbemum Con- 
ference, Royal .Aquarium, January 9tb.J 
So much has been said and written on the general cultivation of the 
Chrysanthemum by eminent writers and growers that it is not necessary 
for me to refer to it. There is, however, one phase of the culture of the 
flower which has received but little attention, and is, consequently, the 
least understood by the majority of growers. I allude to what is now 
usually known as the cultivation of midwinter Chrysanthemums, which 
expression I have adopted as the title and subject of this paper. 
A quickened and increasing interest is being taken in this branch of 
the culture of Chrysanthemums, and rightly so, considering that it 
enables us to have their flowers in perfection for at least two months 
longer than formerly, and at a time when there is a great paucity of 
other flowers. By establishing the Midwinter Exhibition and the 
very liberal prizes offered, the National Chrysanthemum Society has 
done much, no doubt, to bring about and foster this new interest in late 
cultivation with the view to prolonging the season and decorative use¬ 
fulness of this increasingly popular flower. 
Growers who essay the cultivation of midwinter Chrysanthemums 
will, by selecting the naturally late flowering kinds, by late propagation, 
and by suitable treatment of the plants, find it a comparatively easy 
matter to prolong the blooming season to a much later date than at one 
time was considered possible. They will no longer be satisfied to see, as 
in the past, the greater part of their Chrysanthemum blooms pass away 
with the dying year. No ; they will find it is possible to prolong the 
season, and to have blooms in quantity up to the end of February, into 
March, or even into April. Indeed, the production of mid and late 
winter blooms is only in its infancy. We have, so to speak, only just 
crossed the threshold of knowledge as to what can be accomplished in 
the direction indicated. 
Having been fairly successful in the cultivation of midwinter 
Chrysanthemums, I wi 1, without troubling to give the minor details, 
describe as briefly and as lucidly as I can the procedure by which I 
have been enabled to span the year with Chrysanthemum blooms. Re¬ 
ferring first to the cuttings, I would state that they are taken mostly 
from plants that have bloomed in November and December. After they 
have bloomed the stems are cut down, all weakly shoots removed, and 
the stools p'aced in a cold pit to keep them back. The cuttings arc 
struck at three different times—namely, February, March, and April, in 
the last week of each month. Those struck in February are put under 
handlights in a cold pit, and those struck in March and April have the 
assistance of a slight hotbed. The cuttings selected are the latest sucker 
or root growths, preference being given to those that are stout and short- 
jointed. 
As soon as the cuttings are struck they are carefully hardened and 
p'aced in a frame with a north aspect. When sufficiently advanced the 
cuttings are potted and returned to the frame, kept close till the roots 
begin to run freely, and then gradually exposed. As soon as the weather 
will allow the plants are stood out of doors on a bed of ashes ; before 
they become root-bound they are shifted into 6-inch pots and returned 
to the ashbed, where they are placed in a north aspect, with a view to 
keeping them back. By the middle and end of July respectively most 
of the plants are ready to be transferred to their flowering pots. Those 
intended for the supply of cut flowers are shifted into 9. 10, or 12-inch 
pots, three plants in each ; and those intended for decorative purposes 
are shifted into 7 or 8-inch pots. When all have been potted they are 
ready to be placed in their summer quarters, to the proper selection of 
which I attach much importance, for on it will depend in no small 
degree the success in procuring very late blooms. It wiil be seen that 
our practice differs somewhat from the generally accepted “ full exposure 
to the sun ” course of procedure. 
In growing Chrysanthemums for late flowering it is necessary to 
defer to the latest date possible the formation of the crown bud. This 
can be done in two ways—first, by the constant pinching-back of the 
shoots or cutting down the plants at a certain date, so as to produce late 
