Cultural Suggestions—Commercial & Exhibition Types 

SOIL PREPARATION. Prepare the beds early by spading in 
well decayed cattle manure or bone meal working in thoroughly 
to a depth of 12 to 15 inches. Use peat if the soil is too sandy 
or too heavy. 
FERTILIZING. Few applications of commercial fertilizers such 
as ‘‘Gaviota,” ‘’Vigoro’’ or other complete fertilizers should be 
made during the summer months. The feeding should be avoided 
during the periods of extreme heat or when th 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). 
STOPPING. When the plant is established in your garden and 
when it has developed 2 or 3 pairs of matured 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 similar with those of 
the larger flowering varieties. 
DISBUDDING (see drawing above). Immediately 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 ad- 
hered 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 ‘'termi- 
nal’ bud appears later in clusters surrounded with several flower 
buds. 
The procedure of ‘taken 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 district. The retention of too early crown buds often results 
with large percentage of crippled flowers, especially 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 Fig. 1). It is also advisable to allow 
on alternate bud (see Fig. 2) to remain until one is certain of all 
defects when final selection is being made (Fig. 3). 
PESTS. Common pests and diseases are thrips, aphids, leaf- 
tyers, cut worms, mildew, etc. Plants should be examined fre- 
quently and sprayed with proper insecticides as recommended by 
dealers as soon as they are detected. After September lst 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 upright. 
Culture for Bush or Garden Varieties 
Under these types are pompons and buttons, anemones, singles 
and hardy Koreans. 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 pre- 
vent the plants from toppling too freely with minimum support. 
07 
