28 
The Garden Magazine, March, 1923 
How to Coax Big Blooms 
D 
LARGE-FLOWERED CHRYSANTHEMUMS GROWN IN A KANSAS GARDEN 
Well’s Late Pink measuring 5 inches both in diameter and depth; eight or ten blooms of this size 
being borne on one plant in the garden of Miss Viola McColm, Bucklin, Kansas; by pinching off 
all but one or two buds on a plant larger flowers—six or six and a half inches across—are produced 
ging a shallow trench around the plants every ten days to two 
weeks, well beyond the roots, sprinkling a half-teacupful of ma¬ 
nure in the trench, troweling it in, watering thoroughly, by filling 
the trench with water repeatedly and, after all had soaked in, 
drawing the dry top soil back into the trench. A very little 
manure? Yes, but enough if the soil has been well fertilized. 
When the buds began to appear, the plants were fed liberally 
with a preparation of dried sheep manure at the rate of a cup¬ 
ful of manure to four gallons of water, left to soak for a day and 
used after vigorous stirring. A very weak solution? Yes, 
but strong enough. If a watering can is used, remove sprink¬ 
ler. After one season’s trial, if these quantities of dry and 
liquid manure are deemed insufficient, the foregoing sugges¬ 
tions may be disregarded, but it should be borne in mind 
that in over-feeding there is real danger, in under-feeding, very 
ISBUDDING must be 
resorted to if largest 
blooms are desired. If all 
lateral growths are removed 
as they appear, we shall have 
a single-stemmed plant, 
crowned at its apex by a 
“crown” or “single” bud. 
Were we, instead, to remove 
the crown bud and allow one 
of the lateral growths sur¬ 
rounding it to remain it 
would terminate in a cluster 
of buds called “ terminal” or 
“cluster” buds. “Taking” 
(retaining) the best of these, 
usually the centre bud, and 
removing the rest, we should 
now have a plant grown to a 
single terminal bud. Crown 
buds are often replaced by 
“second” crown buds, but 
terminals are final; these re¬ 
moved floweringterminates. 
It has been my practice, 
except when seeking an 
early bloom on a singlestem, 
to remove all crown buds as 
they appear and depend 
upon the terminals, as these, 
for me, yield blooms of bet¬ 
ter shape and color. 
A single crown or termi¬ 
nal bud to a plant will yield 
the largest blooms obtaina¬ 
ble, but who is content with 
a single bloom to a plant. 
Few, 1 imagine, though 
many will find satisfaction 
in growing from three to 
five blooms, one bloom to 
each of three to five stems. 
These stems are secured by 
pinching out the tops of the 
plants when about eight 
inches in height, called 
“stopping.” Thiscausesthe 
plant to “ break,” i. e., form 
a number of stems in place of the one pinched back. Even more 
than five stems may result from the break, but five is plenty: 
the fewer retained, the larger the blooms. The fact that one 
variety will yield fifteen blooms on as many stems, all larger 
than the three blooms of another variety, is not an argument 
against disbudding, but in favor of growing that particular 
variety, e. g., Christy Mathewson of the Exhibition varieties. 
Smith’s Imperial of the Commercial. 
Grown to a single bud on a single stem, for largest blooms, 
or to one bud on each of many stems for semi-large blooms, all 
lateral growths must be removed as they appear. Other lateral 
growths will push out to take the place of those removed; these, 
too, must be pinched off. 
But what is a person to do who returns from his vacation too 
late to pinch out the laterals as they appear; who has a thrifty 
little; the latter is easily 
remedied, the former with 
difficulty; in fact, a bad case 
of over-feeding is practically 
hopeless. 
