Fill your greenhouse with chrysanthemums if you want a colorful show this fall and winter with plenty of blooms to cut.
They are about the easiest and most satisfactory flowers you can grow.
They occupy the plant benches comparatively quickly and can be grown either as a pot plant or bench crop.
What’s more, there is almost no end to the types and colors you can choose from.
You can have them in all sizes—from small buttons to extensive commercial standards.
You can have pompons, anemones, singles, and odd-flowered forms, including the spiders and spoon.
You can grow sprays, large blooms on single stems (standards), branching types, and cascade types. And all in a myriad of pleasing shades and colors!
If you don’t have stock plants of your own to start, order a supply of rooted cuttings from your local florist or garden supplier.
They are inexpensive and can be easily perpetuated by cuttings year after year.
New Chrysanthemums From Cuttings
It is simple to make new growth from old.
Follow these steps for stem cuttings:
- Select strong stems with 3 or 4 joints.
- Strip off the lower leaves.
- Make clean cuts straight across the joints with a sharp knife.
Rooting The Chrysanthemum Cuttings
The three excellent for rooting the cuttings are:
- Vermiculite
- Coarse sand
- Peat Moss
Here’s how to root the cuttings:
- Stick them in rows about 5” inches apart and 2” inches apart within each row.
- Water well to start with and shade from the sun’s direct rays.
- Syringe on bright days.
The chrysanthemums should be rooted in 21 days.
Transferring Chrysanthemums Cuttings
Never leave them in the medium longer, or growth will become hard and stunted.
As soon as the young plants are rooted, they may be transferred directly into the bench or 3-inch pots.
Here are the following tips to remember:
- Use a good loose loam with sand added, if necessary, to promote good drainage.
- Add superphosphate at the rate of a 4-inch pot full to a bushel of soil, or 5 lbs. to every 12 square feet of bench.
- It is essential to add the superphosphate before planting because phosphorous does not move down into the soil.
- After growth has started, feed every 10 days with liquid manure or a complete liquid fertilizer.
- Potted plants should never be permitted to become pot bound.
- Transplant into larger pots within 2 to 3 weeks.
- Keep the plants well watered throughout the summer.
- A mulch of peat moss is particularly beneficial in reducing evaporation.
- Later in the year, reduce the amount of water, for the foliage on the plants will shade the soil.
When rooting or ordering cuttings, figure on having enough plants.
Proper Way Of Greenhouse Benching
For benching, do the following:
- Set plants about 8” x 8” inches apart unless you want extra-long sterns.
- If you want long stems, set 6” x 6” inches apart, and do not pinch.
Growing Plants In Pots
There is a big advantage, however, in growing plants in pots.
Since flowers come at different times—some coming into bloom and some always just past flowering—it is advantageous to move pots about and have a good show over a longer period.
Here’s what to do:
- Grow one plant to a 6”-inch pot.
- Pinch to bring out 3 or 4 branches.
- The first pinch should be taken about 25 days after planting.
- The last pinch is essential to the development of sprays.
Proper Way Of Pinching Plants
If pinched too soon, the crown bud will be low and under-developed, and if too late, the number of flowers per stem is reduced.
The catalogs list the dates for the time of pinching. It is good to have a typed list posted in the greenhouse and take the last pinch accordingly.
Allow 3 or 4 stems to develop on each plant except in the case of disbuds in which 4 to 6 stems may be allowed.
If you intend to grow plants to a single flower, pinch only once and allow the terminal bud to flower.
Of course, all side shoots from the base should be religiously removed as soon as they appear on plants grown this way.
Always pinch into soft growth. The hard growth does not have the substance to make flowering branches.
The National Chrysanthemum Society, organized by Dr. Ernest Scott of Bogota, N. J., provides an excellent means of keeping up to date on the latest chrysanthemums and enjoying affiliations with others sharing your common interest.
They publish a quarterly bulletin and hold a flower show each year.
June Planting Tips
Here are the following planting tips you can do in June:
Sow Seed
Sow seed of the following plants:
- Begonia sempervirens
- Calceolaria
- Christmas peppers
- Cineraria
- Cyclamen
Divide Clumps
Divide clumps of the painted daisy (gerbera) and pot for December blooms.
Pot Up Bulbs
Pot up bulbs of lilies (tigrinum varieties) for November bloom.
Make Cuttings
Make cuttings of poinsettias now.
Transfer Plants
Transfer plants of primroses into larger pots.
Shade The Greenhouse
Shade the greenhouse to keep it cooler and protect plants from the burning sun’s rays.
Use greenhouse paint for shading or a light shade cloth.
Set Plants
Set geranium plants that have been flowering in the greenhouse out in the garden. They will continue to grow and provide good cutting stock for August and September.
Set azaleas and camellias in a slat house.
Beware of plunging plants under trees where they can become excessively wet and infested with insects.
If you do not have a slat house, it is usually better to grow them in a well-shaded greenhouse.