216 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
This is a circumstance which deserves the attention of florists, 
so to manage the plants that their youthful vigour may be re¬ 
pressed, and premature full age brought about. The progress of 
a single shoot, whether left on the old stool, or parted off as a 
slip, or rooted as a cutting, will continue increasing in bulk and 
length from the month of March till the end of the month of 
October. Now the object of the florist should be either to com¬ 
mence its summer growth a month or two before March ; or so 
hurry on its season of youth, that it may arrive at full age before 
the beginning of winter. Whether this be practicable, or whether 
it would be effectual, is more than we can vouch for. That it 
may be done in a hot-house we have no doubt; and perhaps some 
scheme may be devised for obtaining the same result in the 
open air. 
There is a practice in kitchen gardening which has some bear¬ 
ing on this question, or rather makes clearer the idea we wish to 
impress : it is this—dwarf French or kidney beans are impatient 
of frost, and therefore are liable to be killed if planted too early in 
the spring, and if not planted till all danger from frost is over, their 
pods do not come in soon enough for table. But if the beans are 
planted in autumn in dry earth, and kept dry and safe from frost 
throughout the winter, and transplanted in the open ground about 
the middle of May, they will very soon show both flowers and 
pods, and long before those crops planted in the end of April or 
beginning of May. Now this is an example of how plants may 
be compelled to pass the first stage of their life in a state of 
torpor, and when awakened exhibit at once the results of mature 
age. In this case it may be urged that the plants are constitu¬ 
tionally different, the bean producing flowers laterally, while those 
of the chrysanthemum are terminal, and of course more tardy in 
flowering. But in the case of terminal flowering plants, if they 
be sown too early, or if improperly treated during the first stage 
of their growth, they will instantly start into flower:—instance 
cauliflower, cabbage, &c. 
We know not whether the above remarks will be of any service, 
as leading to any new method of treating the chrysanthemum ; 
but we are not without hopes that, from the great amount of skill 
possessed by our readers, some plan may be devised to accomplish 
what is so much wished concerning it. 
