A WINTER BOOSTER
Cheer your plot this season with bright, hardy chrysanthemums
NoVeMBeR gardens can be grim. everything seems to be dying and colour is giving way to gloom. But chrysanthemums are great for bucking that trend. outdoor varieties are still fresh, colourful and lovely. These are the year’s final stars — the not-so-fat ladies who sing down the floral curtain.
Chrysanthemums are a huge and diverse plant group. originally from China, they’ve been in cultivation for at least 3,000 years and come in almost every colour, shape and size.
Commercial breeders have developed thousands of varieties, mainly for the cut flower and pot plant trade. The best of those are superb and easy to grow, but not outdoors in november.
For that, we need rugged, weather-proof plants that won’t blow over in a gale and produce beautiful and durable flowers.
Frost-hardiness varies among chrysanthemums. The best outdoor border varieties are almost indestructible. They’re truly perennial, developing healthy clumps which, if well managed, perform year on year.
Currently, late varieties are in flower. But the earliest — pink, single- flowered Clara Curtis — begins to bloom in August, whereas lanky-stemmed emperor of China flowers well into December.
SHAPELY BEAUTIES
VARIETIES with small to medium flowers work best in a garden. They have a fresh natural look and take over from fading late perennials such as asters. The stockiest varieties need little support and develop into shapely domes of colour.
Among these, an old favourite, C. Mei-Kyo, is one of the most dependable. Growth is compact — 60 to 70cm — and the mauvepink buttonhole flowers are amazingly hardy.
Chrysanthemums sometimes produce freak shoots or ‘sports’ with flowers in different colours. Cuttings taken from those result in new varieties. Thus, from MeiKyo we have yellow nantyderry Sunshine and Bronze elegance.
These are all long- lived perennials, but results are always better from young plants. To keep yours youthful, dig them up every third or fourth year in March. Tease away small pieces from the outer edges. each little chunk needs up to three shoots and a few healthy roots.
LOVELY TO BLEND
BORDER chrysanthemums with single or semi-double flowers are charming. The first of these, early yellow, flowers in August, whereas flush-pink innocence looks gorgeous this weekend.
Bronze or red varieties blend superbly with autumn leaf colours. The garnet blooms of Duchess of edinburgh are beautifully formed but the untidy, coppery blooms of Topsy are charming, too.
When buying chrysanthemums for outdoors, be sure to choose hardy border varieties. Good suppliers include Woottens of Wenhaston, woottensplants.com and Woolmans, woolmans.com.
outdoor varieties prefer welldrained soil in full light and benefit from well-rotted compost.
Finally, here’s a trick. Plant your chrysanthemums in small groups. Then, in late May, cut the young stems of half your plants back to 60 per cent.
Leave the rest untouched. That will result in stocky plants, which will flower later than the untouched ones. That’s great because, in november, we need every flower we can get.