Ivor Mace (lates)
An RHS show judge and Associate of Honour, Ivor started growing chrysanthemums in 1972, was National Champion 22 times and has won 15 best exhibit awards.
This is the time to move your late chrysanthemums into their final pots. Usually, the varieties that need stopping in May are potted mid to late May and the ones that need stopping in June are potted late May until around June 10.
Stopping is when you pinch out the growing point to promote shoot growth from the leaf axils. It enables you to have two or three blooms on one plant, or in the case of singles and anemones, six or more blooms per plant.
With large exhibition types, we only allow one bloom per plant to get the maximum size. We stop them to get a full leaf count and to get them to bloom when the flower show is on. We call this timing – hence the term stopping and timing. There are suggested stopping dates in nurserymen’s catalogues, use these to begin with and then keep records yourself, so your dates suit your garden and your growing methods.
Final potting is usually into 23cm (9in) or 25.5cm (10in) depending on the vigour of the root system on each variety. When I pot into final pots I leave a 5cm (2in) space at the top of the pot so I can apply a 2.5cm (1in) layer of top dressing in late July/early August.
Now that peat is being withdrawn, I’m trialling woodfibre compost. I did a small trial last year, to good effect. This year I’m growing 20 plants in woodfibre. I’m using it instead of peat and adding my normal amount of loam and grit to it.