dressings of preferably a balanced ferti¬ 
lizer. We occasionally see nice plants 
grown in an outdoor frame all summer, 
but most specialists prefer to keep them 
in a low, well ventilated, unshaded house 
where they are protected from storms, hot 
winds, and insects. But the outdoor frame 
plan is a profitable one if the frame is 
sheltered from strong winds. It is par¬ 
ticularly convenient if the plants are to be 
shaded for mid-September flowering. The 
effect of the full outdoors on pot plants 
is to harden, invigorate, and keep them 
compact. For this reason, greenhouse 
grown plants can well be exposed to the 
outdoors for a month or 6 weeks of mid¬ 
summer. An important detail in the grow¬ 
ing of pot plants is in the hands of the 
man with the hose. Right after potting, 
they can be easily turned yellow by excess 
water, but after they become well rooted 
and in full growth in a 5 in. pot, they 
absorb much water and quickly become dry 
enuf to harden and dry up lower foliage 
unless closely watched. We have seen an 
overhead sprinkling system used on out¬ 
door grown stock to good advantage. But 
there is danger of overwatering with it un¬ 
less closely watched. The Caprice varie¬ 
ties and the smaller flowered kinds, were 
formerly largely used for pot plant pur¬ 
poses. Today, while all classes are used, 
the large flowering ones are principally 
depended upon; your customers will select 
plants with largest flowers. The follow¬ 
ing are especially popular with one of the 
largest successful pot plant growers in the 
following order: Friendly Rival, Sun Gold, 
Ohio State, Glitters, Golden Herald, Hilda 
Bergen, Thanksgiving Pink, Apricot Queen, 
White Chief, and Jus trite. And with this 
same grower, the following Pompons and 
Anemones are used in the order named: 
Nuggets, Rodell Imp., Red Rover, Beauti¬ 
ful Lady, Kathleen Thompson, Caprice 
Butler, and Little America. The cooler 
climate of England and Canada permits 
flowering an early class that naturally gets 
in around Sept. 1, averaging about half 
the size of our big Oct. kind and available 
in a full line of colors, we believe they 
should have some value for us as pot 
plants for they are fairly compact and 
quite free. 
IN COLD HOUSES 
Most of our Mum growing is done in 
structures consisting of nothing more than 
a roof—sides entirely open. They are frozen 
up over winter so we refer to them as “cold 
houses.” We find them more profitable 
than our large modern houses for two 
reasons: first being their low cost that re¬ 
duces depreciation figure; second, free cir¬ 
culation of air thru them all summer en¬ 
ables better stock to be grown. Should it 
be necessary to do so for insects, the sides 
are closed in with Aster cloth. Most of 
these houses are built in the protected 
space between our large houses and are 20 
ft. wide. We have noted high board fences 
for wind protection built around blocks of 
similar low cost structures. To guard 
against possible frost, and prolonged wet 
weather that might start decay in the large 
flowered kinds, we run 4-5 one in. steam 
pipes thru these houses. Sometimes this 
precaution saves a mid-October crop, tho 
all of them are used for October and a few 
early Nov. varieties that are flowered late 
Sept, thru the black cloth shading plan. 
Some of these houses have a permanent, 
regulation glazed roof, tho sash does prac¬ 
tically as well. Our latest idea in these 
houses makes use of a material known as 
Flexo Glass, a paraffined cloth, that we 
get from the Flexo Glass Co., 1457 N. 
Cicero Ave., Chicago, Ill. at a cost of 
around 16c a sq. yd. We get it in 3 ft. 
widths, attaching it to frames that are 
made to fit into 3 ft. spaced roof bars. The 
frames reach from gutter to ridge and are 
not placed in position until after buds are 
set. This plan is not only more economical 
than the glazed roof, but it leaves the 
growing crop fully exposed to air all thru 
the heat of summer. Furthermore, tem¬ 
perature for the plants is reduced some by 
stretching a thin grade of cloth (12 
strands to the in.) over them thruout the 
summer. This protects them from the sun 
and wind and keeps the growth softer. 
The Flexo covered sash used with this 
plan is carefully stored, not in use over 3 
months of the year, so should last at least 
3 to 4 years if managed with some care. As 
equipped, we flower big Mums in these 
structures as late as Oct. 15-20, but at this 
date, we are prepared to close in the sides 
with sash for it sometimes freezes quite 
hard by this date in our latitude. The main 
crops in these houses are brought in Sept. 
20 to Oct. 1, during which time they are 
usually safe except for the effect of 2-3 
days of wet weather. Under these condi¬ 
tions, a few steam pipes more than pay 
for themselves. It must be remembered 
that big Mums are softer; therefore, more 
easily damaged than the harder little Pom¬ 
pons. Should heat in some form not be 
available to guard against wet cold 
weather, we should hardly, in our latitude, 
take a chance flowering big Mums in such 
cold houses later than Sept. 20-25. But 
21 
