Chrysanthemums, once thought of primarily as flowers for autumn gardens and greenhouses, are now grown all year round.
With an eye to scientific research, Horticulturists discovered that chrysanthemums bloom when the days are short.
By controlling the light, using simple means like shading with a dark cloth, the plants bloom outdoors before frosting in cold areas.
Indoors, they can be flowered at any season of the year they are needed by controlling or providing light.
Likewise, in the warmer climates, they are grown in the open and shipped to flower shops in all parts of the country.
Specific Chrysanthemum Growing Needs
Although chrysanthemums are comparatively easy to grow, they have specific needs to be supplied for top-quality bloom.
Shallow rooted, they need moisture at their roots, especially in dry weather.
A rainy season usually causes fungus on the leaves, and plants must be sprayed for insects.
Feeding is essential, as are pinching, disbudding, and staking. Yet chrysanthemum enthusiasts will ensure that the results are worth all the effort involved.
After all, few flowers have better keeping qualities, and the color range is amazing.
So, too, is the list of varieties and flower types ranging in size from tiny, button-like flowers to huge blooms as big as dinner plates.
Earlier Chrysanthemum Bloom – Yours For The Effort
Chrysanthemums may be wayward, but they are also rewarding.
They want their feet moist, but their leaves dry. Therefore, they will not bloom if the days are long or if the nights are cold.
They may stand a hurricane with great fortitude, but they are scared of a tiny bug.
Though, satisfying such definite whims is a small bother, considering the gorgeous bloom they will produce in return.
Planting Chrysanthemum Rooted Cuttings
We get rooted cuttings from our chrysanthemum plantings in May and set them directly into the ground.
In the rainy season, we set them out, and the sloppy ground barely held the cuttings upright.
Since they like moisture, they began to grow almost immediately. However, it was a different matter when the rain continued all summer.
Then we had to fight fungous troubles to which chrysanthemums are always susceptible.
In fact, one of the major difficulties in growing them out of doors, especially under shade, is keeping the leaves dry—an impossible feat.
Constant spraying with fungicides, therefore, is a must.
Pinch For Branching
As soon as the plants get a good start, we pinch the tops to make them branch.
They quickly cooperate by sending out several shoots. Of these, we choose the three strongest and take off the rest.
The plants, always too willing to cooperate, make more and more branches, but we continue to take them off.
Provide Support
Next, to grow straight stems, we support the plants with a framework of wire and strings.
The wires have strung the length of the bed, and the string is tied crosswise to make one square for each plant.
Consider Day Lengths
It is now time to consider the day lengths. By nature, chrysanthemums refuse to bloom except when the days are getting short in the fall.
Fortunately for all of us, they are easily fooled. To give chrysanthemums the amount of daylight they prefer, all necessary is to make a tent of dark cloth to keep out the sunlight from late afternoon until morning.
This means building a sturdy structure of posts and heavy wire or a pipe framework to support the tent, which can be surprisingly heavy, especially when wet.
Incidentally, this method can be reversed to make chrysanthemums bloom in the winter in a greenhouse.
Lights can be strung over the beds to make the days longer.
While attending to these details, we keep a sprayer full of insecticide in one hand and a sprayer of fungicide in the other.
Then, whenever the plants are dry, we keep a hose ready to water them.
Growing Pompons
Last season, our crop was mostly pompons, but we tried a few standards as an experiment.
These were grown in the same way as pompons until budding time.
After the usual three stems had been established, they produced many buds, all of which had to be taken off except the best-looking one on each stem—a time-consuming job.
Pompom Varieties
Our earliest standard was Betsy Ross, a large, handsome white flower that was not entirely ready to cut when hurricane “Carol” came roaring. That was the end of Betsy.
The other varieties were budded, and, although some of the buds were snapped off, the plants appeared to be in fair shape, considering the beating they had taken.
We managed to sell a few dozen yellow, bronze and orchid ones before hurricane “Edna” came and finished the rest!
We also tried two spider mums, Queen’s Lace and Yellow Lace. These are disbudded like the standards.
The Tarnish Bug A Frequent Chrysanthemum Visitor
Apparently “extra delicious,” they were a great favorite of the tarnish bug, which stings the buds, causing deformed flowers to develop.
Although it is easy to control the tarnish bug by spraying in a typical year, during the past season, rains repeatedly washed off any spray an hour after it was applied.
As it turned out, this difficulty did not matter because the buds were so tender that the flowers were damaged by “Edna” even before they had opened.
Then, they were attacked by a petal blight brought on by the excessive dampness when they did open.
Despite these major troubles, we consider the experiment satisfactory, for, with reasonable cooperation from the weather, we feel confident we can raise large, handsome standard mums out of doors.
After about eight weeks of shading (or short days), the buds of chrysanthemums are well grown and begin to show color.
That is the time to stop shading them. All standby varieties seem like old friends when the flowers open, but seeing what the new ones look like is most exciting.
Chrysanthemum Possibilities For the Home Greenhouse
For the home gardener, chrysanthemums present fascinating possibilities.
Anyone with plenty of time and a little greenhouse could have blossoms every week of the year.
Also, there are enough sizes, shapes, and colors to have something different every week for more than one year.
Chrysanthemums are not difficult to raise, and they are so adaptable that ways of growing them are endless.
For example, one variation is to grow standard types in pots.
Here’s how to do it:
- Put one standard cutting in a pot.
- Keep it pruned to one stem.
Disbudding to one bud produces a tall, vigorous plant with a huge flower.
On the other hand, plant 4 cuttings of the same variety in one pot.
Here’s how to do it:
- First, pinch the plants to make several branches.
- Disbud each branch to one bud, and a low, bushy plant, covered with miniatures of the big flower, is the result.
Vary by planting several colors in one pot.
Pompons, including the hardy kinds, can be grown in pots. Delightful effects can be obtained by disbudding many kinds to one flower per stem.
Growing Chrysanthemums In A Pit
Another method for the home gardener that requires neither light, shade, nor heat is growing chrysanthemums in a pit.
Here’s how to do it:
- Dig a pit about 5’ feet deep.
- Put benches in it for the pots just below the ground level outside.
- Cover this excavation with a roof, having its north side boarded and its south side glassed, with a provision for ventilation through the ends.
Such a pit protects the plants from frost so that they can bloom at their natural time of the year with very little care.
42954 by Elizabeth Wall