NC. 
/ / 
FLOWER SEEDS FOR FLORISTS 
/ / 
All our aster seed is grown for us under the ideal climatic conditions of California where strong sun and absence of rain thru the growing 
season insures perfectly matured seed. 
GOOD ASTERS 
T HERE is no question about a fine lot of Asters being profitable. A welcome market is assured for 
them in advance. The problem is to grow them successfully. Also, there is no question about the rot- 
resistant strains going far to solve this problem. But these strains are not always as successful every¬ 
where as they are with the originator. The reason is quite clear. An examination of a lot of diseased 
Asters will show various kinds of trouble. No doubt about the stem rot they are bred to resist, existing 
in various forms. And it happens that growing or weather conditions are much more favorable to rot 
some seasons than others. Also, some resistant strains are, perhaps, not so fully resistant as they can 
and will be. It is practically impossible to get all of them highly resistant, for some are naturally weaker 
than others. The California Giants are most difficult to strengthen; so are the Peony-flowered, though 
in our list for this season will be found two good Giants and a fine new Silvery Rose in the Peony-flow¬ 
ered. Such weaker strains, under the unusual and prolonged heat of the past summer, will suffer most. 
You might ask, "Why are the weakest ones sent out?" Please note that no resistant variety is offered 
as such that does not show up at least 75 to 80 per cent strong in soil that has grown Asters for 5 or 6 
years and is full of disease. This is further checked by planting regular strains alongside of them, and 
these checks are invariably destroyed 100 per cent in a very short time. 
However, we are glad to say that we receive, from all sections 
of the country, many and highly favorable reports on the way 
the resistant strains hold up. Considering the amount of selec¬ 
tive work that has been done on these strains both for resistance 
to rot and type, we feel very safe in urging their use and insist¬ 
ing upon their superiority to the regular kind under anybody's 
growing conditions. In fact, we are so certain of their better 
value that, to carry out our policy of "All the best and nothing 
else," we will no longer list regular varieties that are available 
in the resistant ones. 
In growing Asters keep in mind that a check to growth at 
any stage is clearly hurtful. The ideal starting plan for getting 
clean, healthy growth is to sow the seed, after heavy frosts are 
over, where they are to flower. This avoids the check of trans¬ 
planting and explains the success of the home gardener who 
generally has a wealth of Asters, while your early-sown trans¬ 
planted stock dies out. But, to get long stems and larger com¬ 
mercial flowers, an earlier start is necessary; for to produce such 
flowers requires a strong plant with time to make stems before 
the buds set, which they will do when their time for doing so 
arrives regardless of stem length or growth. So the commercial 
grower must sow earlier under glass and avoid checks as far 
as possible. 
For planting in cloth houses in our latitude we sow April 10 
to 15, transplanting but once—to flowering bed 12x12 inches. 
The past season we made an early January sowing, using four 
hours of electric lights nightly on them until planted on raised 
beds in March. Mostly Royals were used, and we flowered them 
early in June and they paid. But the young stock must be grown 
in at least a Carnation house temperature. In a cold dark house 
they are inclined to stand still; and when this happens, they are 
checked and will be liable to rot out no matter how resistant 
they are. Artificial light helps keep them going. The hardest 
check to overcome is a hard wilt in transplanting to the open 
field without water. They pick up, of course, and start off in 
fine shape even after wilting 3 or 4 days; but—well, most of 
us are familiar with the usual result. 
Paying Asters cannot be grown without the protection of a 
cloth house. Some localities might get a fair crop one season out 
of three or four but the average will not be profitable. The cloth 
house produces longer stems and larger flowers, and—freedom 
from the "yellows." This deadly disease is carried to Asters by 
a very small insect that the cloth house screens out. No retail 
grower can afford to do without a cloth house. Not only Asters 
but most summer crops are greatly improved by the shelter they 
afford from the scorching sun and wind of mid-summer. 
[ 4 ] 
