70 
THE FLORIST. 
THE QUILLED GERMAN ASTER; ITS CULTURE FOR 
EXHIBITION. 
The twenty-four Asters shown by me at the Crystal Palace having 
been much admired, perhaps a few words on this, my favourite annual; 
may not be unacceptable to your readers. 
i think a great cause of failure often arises from the seed being sown 
too early, so that the plants begin to flower in the long days imperfectly, 
and by September they are too far spent to produce fine blooms in 
their proper season. My memorandum book informs me that for the 
last eight years, I have sown some time between the 26th of April and 
the I4th of May. In 1856, I sowed on the 5th of May, pricked out 
on the 12th of June, and finally planted out to bloom on the 28th. 
The plan I adopt is, to sow the seed in a cold frame under glass, in 
drills six inches apart, and not too thick in the driUs, say the first week 
in May; the plants come up in a few days, when they must have plenty 
of air; and as soon as they are about an inch high, take the glass quite 
off for two or three days and then prick them out on a slight hot-bed 
three or four inches apart; here they will take root in a day or two 
without shade or glass. Before the plants begin to run up in the stem, 
plant them out where they are to stand for blooming, in well manured 
soil, being careful to remove them with as much mould attached to the 
roots as possible; let the rows be one foot apart, and the plants ten 
inches or a foot apart in the rows. If the weather is dry, they must be 
watered" until they take root; afterwards keep clean from weeds, stir 
between the plants, and about the first week in August, top dress with 
rotten dung from an old hot-bed (the one on which the young plants 
were pricked out wiU be in a good state if well beaten up), and give a 
good soaking of water over all if the soil is dry. The plants''will now 
require to be tied to small stakes, and as soon as it can be seen which 
buds are likely to make good blooms, thin them out, leaving only three . 
or four to a plant; I often take out the centre one; small shoots wiU 
also come at the base of the leaves, these must be removed as they 
appear. As the blooms show, I shade all the best with flat boards ten 
inches square with a small hole in the middle, stuck on the point of a 
stick just above the tallest bloom on the plant. I say shade, but the 
chief thing is to keep off the wet from the flower, for I find small glasses 
such as are used by Carnation growers answer first-rate, even without 
any shade. The best blooms must be well secured from being blown about 
by the wind, and then if you see a fine young bloom on the 1st of 
September, you may hope to show it well on the 9th at the Crystal 
Palace, for a good Aster is not like a good Dahlia, gone in a day or two. 
Asters do well sown at once where they are to stand, but as they are 
often eaten off as fast as they • appear above-ground by worms, slugs, 
&c., it is not safe to trust to this plan. The seed may also be sown in 
pots or pans, but in this way, if left a few days too long before planting 
out, they will be spoiled, so that I much prefer the plan I have 
endeavoured to describe. 
B. H. Betteridge. 
