I am fond of chrysanthemums and like to grow many of the better varieties for their beauty in the garden and arrangements and to give them away to friends as cut flowers and divisions.
At first, I grew all I could in a mixed border, but there, due to the proximity of other plants set close together to make a brilliant display of color, it was challenging to pinch and spray them properly.
I, therefore, moved most of them to a bed in front of climbing roses on the southeast side of the house.
The bed, once occupied by rose bushes, was ideal. Its soil had been improved, and I had no trouble caring for chrysanthemums planted 16” inches apart in it—even staking them and covering them at night whenever an unusually early frost threatened to bring on an early doom.
But there was a long wait for flowers in that area!
Blossoming Plants for the Bed
Unwilling to allow any part of my flower garden to lack color during long periods of the growing season, I considered plants for the bed that would blossom while the chrysanthemums were still young and flowerless.
Tulips seemed to be the answer, as they could be planted deep enough to remain undisturbed when I remade the chrysanthemum bed each year.
So at tulip planting time, early in November here in Scarsdale, New York, I got out bags of different tulip varieties, some fertilizer, labels, a cart for trash, and a basket and set out for the chrysanthemum bed, which was still in full bloom.
I dug holes between the mum plants about 10” inches deep and wide enough to hold at least six bulbs. I shoveled the soil from the holes into the basket so that it would be out of the way until the bulbs were in the holes and ready to be covered with it.
Planting Bulbs
Next, I put a quarter of a cup of 5-10-5 mixed with superphosphate and bone meal into each hole, stirred it well into the soil at the bottom, and covered it with an inch-thick layer of plain soil.
I carefully spaced six or eight bulbs in each hole, covered them with the soil from the basket, and set a label beside each.
I used bulbs of the same variety in two or three successive holes to have large masses of one color and to get a more effective planting.
White Alyssum
Early the next April, I sowed white alyssum seed along the edge of the bed and set out a broken border of homegrown pansies—mostly white —just behind alyssum.
Having lifted two or three plants of each chrysanthemum variety the previous fall (to winter them safely in a frame), I had empty spaces left between the tulips. Into them, I transplanted forget-me-nots which self-sow for me in a rose bed and a corner between some shrubs.
Pansies and Dahlias
The next year, by widening the chrysanthemum bed, I even made room between the pansies and chrysanthemums for color-selected homegrown, dwarf bedding dahlias that produce small, vivid blossoms long before the chrysanthemums flower and are particularly fine just before the latter burst into bloom.
Forget-Me-Not
The forget-me-nots and the new growth of chrysanthemums allowed to remain in the bed almost hide the tulip foliage, which ripens and becomes unsightly in late May and early June.
When the forget-me-nots finish (just before the tulip leaves are brown enough to be cut off), I pull them out and fertilize the soil for the chrysanthemums using the same mixture I had used for the tulips.
A little later, when the tulips are gone, I revamp the bed.
Root Cuttings for Chrysanthemum Plants
Formerly, I divided chrysanthemum plants and replanted the divisions each year. Now I prefer root cuttings taken from the top of the new growth made by old plants. It is the best way to avoid spreading diseases.
The cuttings root in three weeks in sand or sand and peat in a sheltered place or frame. I pot mine temporarily. After a week or ten days in pots, they take in the sun and do not wilt when set out in bed.
I take the old plants out (giving them to friends who have admired them) and replace them with new ones. As they grow in mulch, spray, dust, and pinch them several times. I feed and disbud them and have a gorgeous planting in the fall.
Though I still plant a few chrysanthemums in the mixed border for their color late in the season, I concentrate most of them on the southeast side of the house where they put on as flawless performance in fall as the tulips do in spring.
44659 by Adele Mowton Dubreuil