is in the considerably reduced amount of 
cloth required for the sides. 
For individual beds, the same unrolling 
cloth over wires is used. The side piece 
is generally separate and is pushed back 
and forth on rings, while the ends are a 
continuation of the top. In building the 
supporting frame work, we find a height 
of 5 V 2 ft. for mums and 4 ft. for pom¬ 
poms. about right. 
COLD HOUSES 
Houses No. 1, 2, and 3 pictured with 
this are what we refer to as cold houses. 
They are with open sides and some forms 
are with open gables. As will be noted, 
they enjoy protected areas between large 
detached houses. Since it is easily done, 
we run a few 1 in. steam pipes thru them, 
not only for a possible freeze, but to use 
when several days of wet weather might 
spot large flowers. Pompoms are largely 
hard enough to withstand considerable 
moisture, but in our latitude there is al¬ 
ways the danger of a real freeze late in 
September. 
Any shading material used for these 
cold houses should be left in position 
ready to unroll for frost protection until 
the crop is cut out. The green cloth al¬ 
ready referred to, we find just fairly suc¬ 
cessful for protecting large mums. While 
it is practically waterproof on a roof of 
average pitch, it does leave a house quite 
dark sometimes 2-3 days when it is used 
against wet or frosty weather. Also, it 
may leak some after a year’s use. We 
should hardly recommend it for big mums, 
but we believe it safe for pompoms. This 
leaves some form of glass covering the 
safest protection for big mums flowered 
after Mid-September in our latitude. You 
might get by three seasons out of four 
with nothing but heavy cloth protection 
for big mums, but serious loss the fourth 
season might easily pay for a more sub¬ 
stantial protection. Next season we are 
trying a cold mum house protected with 
a material known as Flexo Glass. This is 
a cloth treated or soaked with a wax or 
paraffin, making it waterproof. This 
material has been extensively tried out 
and used by a number of successful grow¬ 
ers and found satisfactory. This material 
is made by the Flexo Glass Co., 1457 N. 
Cicero Ave., Chicago, Ill. and costs around 
15c a sq. yd. We will use 3 ft. widths 
in frames to fit between 3 ft. spaced 
bars—these frames to reach from gutter 
to ridge. They will be placed in position 
after the buds are set, leaving the plants 
exposed to the full air of summer ex¬ 
cept for the shade of a thin grade of 
cloth (12 threads to the inch) that we 
stretch over all such exposed mums dur¬ 
ing summer. It affords some protection 
from drying wind and keeps the growth 
softer. It also protects from summer in¬ 
sects. We find our cold houses, as equip¬ 
ped, safe to figure on a crop of big 
mums up to Oct. 15-20, but when we 
have a house in at this late date, we are 
prepared with sash to close in the sides, 
for by late October, 15-20 degree temper¬ 
ature must be figured with. 
OUT IN THE OPEN 
While we occasionally hear of big mums 
being successfully flowered early without 
glass, or Flexo glass, this method should 
not be depended on in the Central states. 
Big mums are easily damaged by wind 
and moisture. The foilage can be dam¬ 
aged as some California mums are, but 
any irregularity in the flowers condemns 
them. Pompons on the other hand are 
harder and stand considerable more ex¬ 
posure. Most any Oct. variety is easily 
flowered by Sept. 15-20 with no more 
protection against frost than that afford¬ 
ed by the material used to darken them. 
But the shading should start early — 
July 5, and the planting must be done 
early or they will be short stemmed and 
meet a world of competition. Because of 
the comparative ease with which this 
outdoor crop is produced, the profit in 
them the past few seasons has been close; 
in fact, they have been a loss unless long 
stemmed and clean. 
November, or even late October vari¬ 
eties, should not be attempted in this 
early outdoor growing but such are 
flowered perfectly in protected cold hous¬ 
es. It will be noted we refer to 3 distinct 
uses or kinds of cloth. To clarify this, 
we should say aster or cheese cloth is 
used only for protection against summer 
sun and insects. “Black Cloth” is the 
opaque or nearly lightproof material ap¬ 
plied 3-4 weeks to induce premature 
setting of buds. This same material is 
generally left in position to protect them 
from cold or rain. And third, Flexo Glass 
cloth, that is only for such protection. 
Growing shaded pompons in the open 
is not as profitable as it might seem. It 
costs to get good stock and plant early, 
when a greenhouse grower is usually 
quite busy and occasionally this planting 
must be protected against a late May 
frost. 
"Enclose Your Mum With Your Seed Order" 
— 22 
