HOUSE AND GARDEN 
May, 1913 
1 he variety Viplet King bears extremely large 
flowers with strongly incurved petals 
Crego’s aster is almost as large as a chrysan¬ 
themum with flat petals gracefully curved 
Semple crimson aster is of the branching type, 
but an excellent and large flowered form 
asters before transplanting, and if any 
of their white or greenish-blue enemies 
are present, dip them into a bath of 
soap-suds before setting out the 
plants. Wood-ashes and Ivory soap¬ 
suds provide a sovereign cure for the 
ravages of these creatures so ruinous 
to the blossoms of the Composite fam¬ 
ily, for which they seem to have an 
affinity. I have seen half a dozen 
other members of that vast order, 
when grown in sand, affected by these 
pests, although not suffering in so 
great a degree as the aster. 
One year, having forty or fifty 
asters that showed unmistakable signs 
of root-lice, I took up the plants and 
found the roots so completely covered 
with the unpleasant white objects that 
the crowded aphides looked like beads 
on a purse. I sprinkled the roots with 
flowers of sulphur, and put the plants 
back. They soon recovered from their 
removal, lost their sickly appearance, 
and produced perfect blossoms. Late 
in the fall I examined the roots. The 
aphides were still there, but they were 
dead ones. The sulphur had worked havoc in their thriving family. 
A tousled appearance of the blossoms, or arrested development 
in color or form of flower, is usually 
an indication of root-lice. But signs 
sometimes fail here as elsewhere. 
The aster, which endures transplant¬ 
ing wonderfully well, resents even 
slight interference with its roots; and 
on one occasion I found only a big 
angle-worm coiled among the roots, 
while the symptoms pointed to the 
presence of aphides. 
The aster disease or rust gives to 
the entire plant a sickly look, with 
brown or orange spots beneath the 
leaves, where the tissue has died. 
Avoid all except the oldest manure; 
lime the ground if sour, apply wood- 
ashes as a sweetener of the soil and 
a tonic to the plants, not using either 
too liberally at any one time; spray 
the plants with Bordeaux mixture. 
This should be used on the first ap¬ 
pearance of the trouble, better before, 
if it is feared. Repeat the spray every 
week or ten days, taking care to reach 
the underneath side of the leaves. 
For best results, apply when freshly 
made. To make one gallon, dissolve 
separately one ounce of copper sulphate and two ounces of fresh 
(Continued on page 407) 
The Ostrich Feather is particularly interesting for its 
delicacy and light, wavy, twisted petals 
Favorite has flat outside rays with the cen¬ 
ter florets delicately cleft, and is an inter¬ 
esting type 
The rays on Hohenzollern are strap shaped 
except at the center, where they are incurved 
and twi«ted 
A quilled form of the Daybreak aster. 
Another resembling this is the Needle of 
the Victoria type 
