LEADING VARIETIES OF ASTERS
New Rose. This has been a standard sort for many years. Nearly or quite 2 feet in height. Handsome flowers of regular form, imbricated like a rose. Many shades.
Truffaut's Pæony-flowered. For more than a generation this has been a standard. It is sometimes shown at exhibitions in a fourth of a hundred distinct shades. It is tall, with a profusion of very large globular flowers. An old but showy variety.
Victoria. Esteemed by many the very best Asters in existence. Fine for pots, bedding or flower shows. Flowers are three or four inches across, or even larger, and these are perfection as to form. There are over a score of shades, among them colors as rare and as lovely as the cloud tints of sunrise.
Aster Shakespeare
Cocardeau or Crown is another old but not superseded sort. The center of the flower is of small quilled petals, pure white in color. This center is surrounded by a wide ring of flat ray petals of bright color. 18 inches tall. Pretty, odd and showy, but by no means as superb a flower as some of the others.
Quilled German. Another oddity, of about equal value with the Crown Asters. 2 feet high and branching. The flowers are quilled like those of some Dahlias.
Dwarf Bouquet. One of the smallest of all. Only 6 to 8 inches tall, very uniform, each a pyramid of pretty flowers. About a dozen colors are in this strain. Used for edging.
Shakespeare. A fine sort for borders. About 6 inches tall, a solid mass of large globular flowers from top to bottom. There are several colors.
Snowball. 10 to 12 inches high, of a symmetrical habit and bearing exquisitely beautiful flowers of the large Chrysanthemum type. The color is a pure white.
TRUFFAUT'S PÆONY-FLOWERED ASTER
Vick's Branching Asters. The Vicks have always been famous for their Asters, and this is the triumph of their skill. These grow the tallest of all Asters, and require more than ordinary space because of their wide branching habit. Largely grown by florists. It is a late variety, and its magnificent, large and informal flowers are often mistaken for the finest Japanese Chrysanthemums. The flowers are of extraordinary size and are long-stemmed. It comes in snowy-white, pink, lavender, crimson, and purple shades. Pure White is esteemed the finest of the lot, with Daybreak, a lovely sea-shell pink, as a close second. Daybreak is earlier than the type.
Japanese. Known also as the Ostrich Plume Asters, a name which exactly describes them. About 15 inches tall. The curled flowers are of enormous size, 5 to 6 inches across. About 10 colors, some of them most unusual ones.
Giant Silver-Tipped. These are of dwarf habit, but have blossoms of the largest size. These beautiful flowers, whatever their color, are tipped silvery white. An exceptional good pot variety.
Semple's Marvel. This is another favorite with professional growers. They are 20 inches to 2 feet tall, and of branching habit. This is rather a late Aster. The flowers are of much substance, and are perfect in form and rich in color.
Comet. The best known of the curly Chrysanthemum-flowered type. There are two or three strains of this, varying a little as to habit. They range from 14 inches to 2 feet in height, and bear those large, loose, feathered flowers that find so many admirers. The broad outer petals are reflexed. The inner petals are shorter and curve and curl toward the center. These grand flowers come in several beautiful shades.
Aster "Daybreak"