The Witloof, a form of Chicory, is used as a salad, or boiled and served in the same manner as Cauliflower. The plants should be thinned to 6 in. In the latter part of summer they should be banked up like celery, and the leaves used after becoming white and tender. This and the common wild Chicory are often dug in the fall, the leaves cut off, the roots packed in sand in a cellar and watered until a new growth of leaves starts. These leaves grow rapidly and are very tender, making a fine salad vegetable. One packet of seed of the Witloof will furnish plants enough for a large family.
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums are both annual and perennial. The annual Chrysanthemums must not be confounded with the well known fall-flowering kinds, as they will prove a disappointment if one expects large flowers of all colors and shapes. The annuals are mostly coarse-growing plants, with an abundance of bloom and a rank smell. The flowers are single in most cases, and not very lasting. They are useful for massing and also for cut-flowers. They are among the easiest of hardy annuals to grow. The stoniest part of the garden will usually suit them. 1-2 ft. Colors white and shades of yellow, the flowers daisy-like.
Amongst perennial kinds, Chrysanthemum frutescens is the well known Paris Daisy or Marguerite, one of the most popular of the genus. This makes a very fine pot-plant for the window-garden, blooming throughout the winter and spring months. It is usually propagated by cuttings, which, if taken in spring, will give large blooming plants for the next winter. Gradually transfer to larger pots or boxes, until the plants finally stand in 6-inch or 8-inch pots or in small soap boxes. There is a fine yellow-flowered variety.
Chrysanthemums in a box
In variety of form and color, and in size of bloom, the florists’ Chrysanthemum is one of the most wonderful of plants. It is a late autumn flower, and it needs little artificial heat to bring it to perfection. The great blooms of the exhibitions are produced by growing only one flower to a plant and by feeding the plant heavily. It is hardly possible for the amateur to grow such specimen flowers as the professional florist or gardener does; neither is it necessary. A well-grown plant with fourteen to twenty flowers is far more satisfactory as a window plant than a long, stiff stem with only one immense flower at the apex. Their culture is simple, much more so than that of many of the plants commonly grown for house decoration. Although their season of bloom is short, the satisfaction of having a fall display of flowers before the geraniums, begonias and other house plants have recovered from their removal from out of doors, repays all efforts.
Cutting of Chrysanthemum