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flowers won't hit the cloth before you're 
thru shading. 6 ft. or more may be 
needed. See photos for other ideas on 
shading. Some growers rig up side cur- 
tains like a shower curtain and cover the 
top with a strip of cloth rolled around 
a stick. 
On rainy nights or during very hot 
weather, it will help in disease preven- 
tion to remove the cloth after dark and 
replace it again before daylight. Watch 
this closely if you are having disease 
troubles. Be sure the covering is light- 
tight. Black sateen, 64x 104 mesh is 
best. For best results, shade every night; 
missing One or two nights over the sea- 
son won't be serious, but much more 
will simply delay flowering. 
Continue shading until buds on Pomps 
show color. Buds on Standards should 
be the size of a nickel before shading 

Silver Sheen grown outdoors at West Chicago. 
flowering season is needed to prevent rotting of blooms. 
Early Mums will usually throw a crown bud in August. 
This is usually removed and one of the vegetative side 
shoots ‘‘selected’”’ or left to grow on. All other shoots are 
removed. Some plants may produce another crown which 
may again be discarded in favor of a non-flowering shoot. 
_ Sooner or later, all plants produce a terminal from which 
you must select the best bud—to produce the flower. 
On early varieties it’s safest to remove all crowns up to 
August 20. Early crowns are OK on some shaded Mums. 
On mid-season sorts, terminals are safer. Final bud should 
have been selected by September 1-10; on late ones a month 
later. Your experience is the best guide. Keep notes. 
By the way, on all large standard Mums, you must remove 
all the lower side growths. All the effort of the stem 
must go into the one bud. Some growers even practice re- 
moval of side shoots from certain Pompon varieties. Little 
America, for example, flowers much better if side shoots 
are removed and the spray is allowed to flower only 8-10 
florets. 
Don’t cut a Mum till it’s fully open. It will wilt in 
several hours if cut green. Spider Mums can be cut green 
and opened in water. 
BLACK CLOTH SHADING 
Mums, being short day plants, can be very nicely brought 
into bloom about a month ahead of normal date by covering 
them with black cloth from 5 P.M. to 7 A.M. in late sum- 
mer. This actually simulates the shorter days of fall. Some 
pointers: 
HOW TO SHADE. Simplest way is to just stretch wires 
over the bench—lengthwise, forming a support on which 
the black sateen can be draped. During the day it is simply 
bunched up. Be sure the wires are high enough so the 
Flexo-glass sash protection during the actual 
is stopped. 
Here’s our schedule on shaded Mums 
and Pomps for early fall: 
TO FLOWER AUGUST 20-25 
Plant rooted cuttings May 19 (6x6, no pinch). 
Start shading: June 18. 
Varieties: Gold Coast, Pinocchio, Shasta, Yellow Shasta, 
Carolyn Yosick, Rubicon. 
TO FLOWER SEPTEMBER 15-20 
Plant rooted cuttings May 15 (8x8). 
Pinch: June 14. 
Start shading: July 10. 
V arieties: Gold Coast, Pinocchio, Shasta, Yellow Shasta, 
Carolyn Yosick, Rubicon, Seneca. Also following Mums if 
grown indoors or under sash: Good News, Detroit News, 
Betsy Ross, Jean Elizabeth, Mefo, Silver Sheen. 
These schedules may be varied. For complete schedule 
write for our free Mum Crop Schedule. 
OUTDOOR MUMS 
Each season finds more Pomps, especially, flowered out- 
doors in early fall—in both western and eastern producing 
areas. Big advantage is low cost compared to greenhouse 
growing. Also ies cooler outdoors. Benching schedules 
under “Black Cloth Shading’, above, apply. You must 
watch frost dates, but we find Pomps will stand several de- 
grees of frost if the sateen is lowered on cold nights. 
Also to produce real quality it is essential that some pro- 
tection against sun and wind be provided. Regular Aster 
cloth (8 threads per inch) or onion cloth is OK. The new 
plastic cloths about 20 threads per inch are excellent—cost 
more, but last at least several years. Use the transparent 
shade, not the dark brown or black. 
To flower big Mums outdoors in the East, some protection 
is needed, especially during the actual flowering season. We 
18 Try a few outdoor shaded Pomps for September flowering. They need lots of water, light shade. 
