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The Aster: French
Well-grown plants will usually produce more flower-heads than they can fully develop; therefore it is a nice point to thin them in good time. The beginner may with advantage remove all the heads save the centre and three side shoots, thus leaving only four heads of bloom to each plant. As experience is acquired, the rule may be varied, and it will be found that French asters require to be thinned more severely than German, which may in a good soil be allowed to carry half a dozen; but they should never be thinned down to one or two, because while this spoils the appearance of the plants, it does not result in the production of better blooms, for when asters are grown beyond a certain degree of strength they are likely to become coarse. In a hot dry season, asters are peculiarly liable to the attacks of "red spider" or acarus, and "green fly" or aphis. A precaution often adopted to prevent this consists in covering the bed with a mulch of two or three inches of half-rotten dung. This should be put on as soon as the crown bud is visible, and should be followed by regular and copious watering. The healthy and vigorous growth that this treatment promotes is calculated to keep insect foes at a distance, for the sickly plant is soonest attacked by them. When the young plants are infested by green fly it is safer to dust them with tobacco powder than to use any kind of wash. As a rule, indeed, tobacco powder is always to be preferred, because dry and clean and easily washed off. The immense popularity of the aster accounts for the number of varieties that are offered in the seed lists, for one of the first objects of the cultivator of a flower is to promote variation and establish the most distinct and beautiful varieties. For exhibition purposes the best varieties are those known as the Victoria, French Paeony, Giant French, and Betteridge's. For large beds, mixtures of colours are desirable, but the flowers should be uniform in style, and therefore only one sort or section of asters should be grown in a bed. Those who know the sorts well may indeed use several in the same bed, but the safe way for the beginner is to be content with one or two--say a moderately tall kind for the mass, and a dwarfer sort for the margin. One of the best sorts for beds is the Tall Chrysanthemum-flowered, and the Globe German may be used next the margin. The Washington makes a fine bed, with immense flowers of all colours. If a choice dwarf sort is wanted for a bed, there is, perhaps, none better than the Dwarf Paeony Perfection. For pot culture the Dwarf Victoria, Dwarf Schiller, and Dwarf Chrysanthemum-flowered are invaluable, and in common with other kinds may be had in a variety of colours. To grow them well in pots great care is requisite.
