Ss 
Ue Nee Nee So Le On P OE SR a G A R D E N Ss 37 

Cultural Suggestions 
Commercial & Exhibition Types 

SOIL PREPARATION. Prepare the beds early by spad- 
ing in well decayed cattle manure or bone meal work- 
ing in thoroughly to a depth cf 12 to 15 inches. Use 
peat if the soil is too sandy or too heavy. 
FERTILIZING. Few applications of commercial ferti- 
lizers such as “Gaviota,”’ ‘““Vigoro’’ or other complete 
fertilizers should be used during the summer months. 
The feeding should be avoided during the periods of 
extreme heat or when the soil is too dry. Water the 
soil before applying if it is necessary. It should be 
stopped when the buds are large enough to make the 
final selection. Fig. 2 above). 
STOPPING. When the plant is established in your 
garden and when it has developed 2 or 3 pairs of ma- 
tured leaves, the center or the main growth is nipped 
off. Then the plant should be restricted to two or 
three shoots in order to obtain larger blooms. For the 
late blooming variety, the main growths of these new 
shoots may be nipped off again around July 15th in 
order to regulate the height, allowing only the original 
number of new shoots to rise per stem. 
For the large anemones and pompons, allow 6 to 8 
growths to a plant. Other cultures for these being simi- 
lar with those of the larger flowering varieties. 
DISBUDDNG (see drawing above). Immeditely after 
the new shoots of your selection begin to send out side 
laterals, they should be removed very close at the base 
(see lowest lateral of Figure 1) at regular intervals 
about once a week. The basal shoots should be removed 
also as they appear. This procedure should be adhered 
to very religiously in order to obtain successful results. 
The first bud produced by the plant is called the 
“Crown” bud and is distinguished by being surrounded 
by leaves. The “‘terminal’’ bud appears later in clus- 
ters surrounded with several flower buds. 
The procedure of “taking buds’’ depends very largely 
on the variety and no fast rules can be given, but we 
recommend reserving terminal buds for the majority 
of the early flowering commercial and exhibition types 
in Southern California. The safest rule, we find, is not 
to save buds formed before August 20th in our dis- 
trict. The retention of too early crown buds often 
results with large percentage of crippled flowers, espe- 
cially when large amount of nitrogen fertilizer remains 
in the soil unconsumed by the plant. Again, the hottest 
period of the year usually comes during the month of 
September and early October, the hazards of burning 
of petals and fading of colors are too frequent when 
early crown is retained in this district. 
The final selection of bud should not be made too 
hastily nor when buds are very small (see Figure 1). 
It is also advisable to allow an alternate bud (see Fig- 
ure 2) to remain until one is certain of all defects when 
final selection is being made (Figure 3). 
PESTS. Common pests and diseases are thrips, aphids, 
leaf-tyers, cut worms, mildews, etc. Plants should be 
examined frequently and sprayed with proper insecti- 
cides as recommended by dealers as soon as they are 
detected. After September Ist we recommend spraying 
the plants twice a month until buds begin to show color. 
STAKING. Every individual stem should be supported 
with stake or by other means to hold the blooms up- 
right. 
Culture for Bush or Garden Varieties 
Under these types are pompons and buttons, anemones, 
singles and hardy. These varieties are most effective 
in the gardens when grown low with as much growth 
as possible. This is obtained by pinching off the center 
of all the laterals two or three times up to the Ist or 
10th of August. This method will prevent the plants 
from toppling too freely with minimum support. 
