House and Garden 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS 
Few plants require as much food as this one. It is 
impossible to grow it well without the liberal use 
of good fertilizers. And it must be kept well 
watered. If grown in pots, an application of water 
may be needed morning and evening, during mid¬ 
summer. 
Be always on the lookout for the black beetle, 
which is the chrysanthemum’s worst enemy. As 
soon as one is seen, make an infusion of ivory soap, 
from the kitchen—a five cent cake, melted, and 
added to a pailful of water—and apply it all over 
the plants, with a sprayer. If this is done promptly, 
and thoroughly, the insects will soon leave, but 
neglect to attend to it for a day or two and your 
plants may be ruined. 
Those who grow chrysanthemums for home- 
pleasure are discarding the fantastic sorts, for the 
class of which “Ivory” and “Timothy Eaton” are 
good representatives. The fluffy, twisted-petal 
kinds are interesting, as freaks, but they are not 
good plants for house-culture. The variety shown 
in the illustration gives a very good idea of the class 
I would advise the amateur to depend 
on for satisfactory flowers. There is 
enough irregularity of outline to take 
away any suggestion of primness, and 
the flowers are far more beautiful as 
flowers, than the ragged kinds which 
people wonder at, at the fall flower- 
shows, but do not greatly admire. 
I would never advise the amateur 
to attempt growing the great-flowered 
chrysanthemums that are seen at the 
fall exhibitions. What are they but 
floral monstrosities! They show what 
can be done by skill, but the real beauty 
of the flower is lost in them. Who 
would care to make use of them as 
ornaments of the home! The medium¬ 
sized flowers, grown in clusters, as they 
always are when the plant is allowed to 
follow out its natural instincts, are the 
really enjoyable ones. And the most 
satisfactory plant, so far as shape is 
concerned, is the one that has been 
trained in bush form. 
Spring is not too early to begin the 
growing of plants for next winter’s use. 
We generally neglect this until mid¬ 
summer, and the consequence is that 
we have only small specimens when 
winter comes. By beginning early, we 
give our plants a chance to make full 
development in advance of the season 
Therefore, decide on what plants you 
want for next winter, and start them 
now. 
But if you have geraniums that have 
been carried through the winter, and they are such 
as you would care to make use of another season, do 
not discard them for young plants. Cut them back 
until each plant is simply a mass of stubby branches, 
three or four inches long. In a little while these 
“stubs” will produce many new branches, and by fall 
you will have a bushy, compact plant with scores 
of blossoming points. Young plants, grown from 
cuttings this season, would have but few. Here is 
where the old plant has the advantage over a young 
one. By giving it a rich soil, and not allowing it to 
bloom in summer, it will be as strong and healthy a 
specimen in the fall as any young plant could possi¬ 
bly be, and you will get a score of trusses from it to 
every one you would secure from the plant grown 
from a cutting. The person who tells you to 
always depend on young geraniums for winter 
bloom has never given old ones a good trial. The 
old ones that refuse to bloom in winter are those 
which have been allowed to exhaust themselves by 
blooming all summer. 
Another plant that should be given an early 
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