ee ae eS 
start much watering and some feeding will be neces- 
BETTER MUMS FOR 

MUMS AS POT PLANTS 
Nothing in pot plants is quite so satisfactory to 
our public as is the Mum in pot plant form. With 
plenty of bracing fall air they become well hardened, 
rarely failing to be satisfactory. Should a few fail to 
sell, the flowers can be cut down and used. Today’s 
method of producing them thru planting 4-5 rooted 
cuttings or good small pot plants in a 5- or 6 in. pot 
in June or early July is more economical than the old 
procedure of starting earlier with an individual early 
started plant and building it up thru much pinching. 
Furthermore, the later start makes for greater com- 
pactness, and this is more than desirable, it is ab- 
solutely necessary in profitable pot plants of any kind, 
particularly Mums. 
Regarding the type of pots used, it must be said 
that a compact nicely shaped plant is better set in 
the shallow pan type than in a regulation deep one. 
Perhaps for the latest planting the shallow ones will 
finish plants in excellent shape; but for the earlier 
sary if they are to be well finished in shallow pots. 
All points considered, better use the deep pots for 
full size plants. For the sake of uniformity when 3 
or 4 plants are used in a pot, it should be some 
better to use started plants in small pots, for there 
might be some irregularity in the way cuttings get away. 
When the plants reach up 6-8 in. we top them back about 
half way down, later thinning the breaks to about the 2 
or 3 strongest. After these breaks get well under way, they 
are again topped and this should be all the topping or; 
pinching they will require; but growths that break out 

Margaret Moeller, fine white pot plant variety. 
FLORISTS 


Mum Pot Piant Anemone ‘‘Gypsy.’’ 
unduly must, for compactness and shape, be topped. It 
should also be remembered that the July planting will 
not call for as much topping as will the June start. Gen- 
erally one topping will do. Furthermore, the later start 
will, of course, finish more dwarf. Also, cuttings available 
from the earliest topping can be rooted and used for late 
July potting, using 4-5 of them in a 6 in. pan or shallow 
pot. In fact, cuttings of late varieties can be potted late 
as early August. Last season we potted a few Granite 
State cuttings into 4 in. pots in August. With no pinch- 
ing they made quite attractive little specimens with but 
one flower. With the larger flowered kinds that are natur- 
ally not tall there are possibilities. along this line. 
SOIL 
Weather or climatic conditions, that vary everywhere, 
will call for variations of treatment and to meet them suc- 
cessfully the value of some experience comes in. A mod- 
erately heavy soil makes for compactness under all con- 
ditions, and this is helped along by what we should call 
moderately firm potting. This is demonstrated by some tall 
tree growth we have enjoyed in gravel culture, the kind 
we don’t want in pot plants. Along with body, the soil 
should have some organic matter, plus concentrated fertil- 
izer in balanced form. It is hazardous to say just how much 
for, to begin with, the analysis of most soils vary; but 
with plants in good vigorous growth or health we find 
that an occasional top dressing of a small spoonful of 
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