PREFACE 
A number of years ago I became enamored with the stately, large 
incurved types of chrysanthemums as grown by the florists, and began 
experimenting with growing these big-flowering varieties in the open 
garden here. This soon developed into quite a hobby, and finding it ex- 
pensive to be constantly acquiring new (to me at least) varieties to try 
out, I found it not only expedient but necessary that I dispose of my 
surplus plants each Spring at popular prices, to help make my hobby 
self-supporting. This explains the little advertisement of mine which 
you perhaps have noticed. i 
I found that I can grow them fully as large as the average hothouse 
grown mum, but with not quite the “finish” that is possible under glass. 
This I have done now for a good many years in my own garden here, 
right out in the open. 
I have grown practically all of the better known varieties, and 
many of the newer ones, and honestly believe I have as good a private 
collection of these varieties as can be found in the Southeast. I have had 
worlds of pleasure and satisfaction in producing these big blooms in the 
open garden, but found out that many new and highly recommended 
varieties did not always come up to expectations; that it is hard to im- 
prove upon such grand old varieties as the Turners, Pocketts, Snow 
White, Pearsons, and Fricks, and many others, and still retain their 
size and other good points. This I believe is because this type of Chys- 
anthemum is much further along in its stage of evolution, and while all 
varieties have features that could be improved upon, the higher a va- 
riety is in the scale of its evolution the harder it is to obtain a better 
hybrid. For this reason additions to the truly “big” class will be small. 
On the other hand, however, the new pompons, buttons, singles and 
other hardies offer an almost endless field for the hybridizer, and in ad- 
dition even to these, the anemone types add the possibility of marvelous 
color combinations due to their inclination to have the disc one color 
and the ray florets another. I will constantly add to these classes. In 
fact the past two years I have had quite a number of seedlings that to 
me seemed “really good’’, but I have never attempted to disseminate 
them under name. However, I have included a number of such seedlings 
in many orders where the customer expressed a desire for some just to 
‘play with’. Practically all these seedlings are singles, semi-double or 
cascade type. I have not yet had the time to try my hand at hybrid- 
izing the large-flowering types. : 
The most unusual type of chrysanthemum is of course the “‘spidery”’ 
or ‘odd-formed” varieties. For the past few years I have not been able 
to get enough of these varieties to be able to list but few, and last year . 
I was again able to add but few to the surplus list. However, the few 
varieties that I list I hope will convey a good idea of what this type of 
mum is, and later I hope to be able to add several excellent varieties 
to the surplus list. 
Four years ago I obtained from Japan some of the mountain or 
cascade types and have grown them for the past 3 years. They are the 
last word in daintiness—the stems being slender and bend easily. They 
will cascade” nicely, but in order to get the best results it is better to 
“assist” the plant a little, so I have prepared detailed directions on how 
to handle them to get the desired “cascade” effect and will gladly mail 
a copy to any one requesting same and sending a stamp for postage. A 
copy of these instructions will be included in every order that includes 
any cascade varieties. I might add, too, that without any special atten- 
tion they make a nice clump when several are planted close together in 
the garden and kept tied up to wire flower stakes whose tops have been 
bent together. The effect at blooming time is that of a symmetrical 
mound, the upper portion of which is completely covered with miniature 
mum blooms. 
