Hardy Chrysanthemums 
sho modern types of this Fall flower 
produce wonderful effects 
J. Fred Piper 
The Chrysanthemum is a lovable plant in that 
it amply repays the grower for all the time and 
care lavished on it. Culturally speaking, it gives 
less trouble than any other flower. It is not partic¬ 
ular as to soil, blooming profusely in sand, ciay o 
prairie loam, the latter being the heavy black soil. 
In the Spring when the growth is commencing 
on the old plants, unless the gardener particularly 
desires to have large clumps for any reason, the 
best thing to do is break up the clumps and re¬ 
plant the little shoots. This, I believe, is the best 
plan for one who is looking for the largest flowers 
and most vigorous plants. If thinning out is not 
practised, it will result in a bad case of overcrowd¬ 
ing, with the result that the flowers and sprays 
will not be nearly as large as they otherwise might 
be. 
Plants can be set out eighteen inches to two feet 
apart, according to the varieties. After they com¬ 
mence growing, if the tips are pinched a few times, 
it will induce the plants to make a bushy growth. 
And this is greatly to be preferred to one or two 
straggly shoots with the foliage all gone from the 
bottom, which is usually the kind of plant associ¬ 
ated in the public mind with hardy Chrysanthe¬ 
mums. 
By the judicious pinching of Chrysanthemums, 
they can be made into ideal bush plants. This 
pinching can be practised until the middle of June, 
after which time the shoots should be permitted 
to grow up. By this pinching process the need of 
stakes on most varieties is entirely eliminated, as 
the plants are bushy enough to stand erect. 
The question where to set out "Mums” is of 
some moment. Clumps in the herbaceous border 
are very line and particularly useful and cheerful, 
after all other stock has been cut down by the 
frost. The ideal position to make whole beds of 
"Mums" is a southern or eastern exposure pro¬ 
tected from the northwest winds. It is from the 
northwest that most of the early frosts come in the 
early Fall and, if the plants are protected from 
that quarter, it will eliminate the expense of cover¬ 
ing the plants on cold nights. 
One point about "Mums" which might be men¬ 
tioned is that in the Fall, if the first cold night or 
two happens to nip the open flowers, there is no 
great harm done. These flowers can be picked off 
and the buds will continue to develop, and in an¬ 
other few days the plants will be as beautiful as 
before the frost. Frequently there are cold nights 
and then the beautiful Indian Summer weather 
comes, and after that the plants are "a thing of 
beauty" for many weeks, blending with the Autumn 
foliage of scarlet, gold and bronze. 
Chrysanthemums prefer a well-drained situation 
to one lying low or damp, not as much on account 
of the Summer growth or Fall-blooming period as 
to carry over the Winter. Chrysanthemums will 
die out, if their roots are standing in water during 
the Winter, since the thawing and freezing 
throughout the Winter months rots out the roots, 
which naturally causes the plants to die. 
In July when the weather is very hot and muggy 
on account of thunder storms, septoria, or leaf- 
spot, is apt to become trouble-some to the plants. 
When this appears, the foliage should be sprayed 
with a solution of sulphide of potassium, in the 
proportion of half an ounce to a gallon of water. 
Another remedy efficacious in this respect which 
comes already prepared, is Fungine. Septoria should 
not be confused with the natural ripening of the 
leaves which ensues at the base of the plant. As 
the plants acquire bark at this time, the bottom 
leaves have fulfilled their mission and naturally 
turn yellow and drop off. Septoria is easily dif¬ 
ferentiated from the natural ripening of the leaves 
by the dark spot which comes in the middle of the 
leaf, the spores of which will rapidly spread all 
over the entire plant. 
The Chrysanthemum garden should be planned 
at this time to secure the ideal position and out¬ 
standing varieties, giving the same careful consid¬ 
eration as to the Spring flower beds. 
If plants are set out in a rich soil, they wi'l carry 
through without any great proportion of additional 
reitiiizer, although when plants commence to grow 
vigorously, they are the grossest feeders in the plant 
line. A mulch in the Summer of well-decomposed 
cow manure is valuable. It conserves the moisture 
in the soil and as the rain, washes it down into 
the soil, it gives the fertilizing element to the 
plants. The plants grown in the greenhouse require 
a much greater amount of feeding and take quan¬ 
tities of liquid manure when the buds are swelling. 
The average gardener is hardly in a position to 
apply fertilizer in this manner, so the light mulch 
suggested during the month of August, watered or 
hoed in, is all that is necessary to give him the 
very finest of flowers in the Fall. 
