Understanding chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemum is a plant with a long and distinguished history. More than 3,000 years ago in ancient China it was used as a culinary and medicinal herb and thought to have the power of life. Later, Japanese breeders refined the simple flowers and chrysanthemums went on to become an important cultural symbol and emblem.

By the middle of the 19th century, chrysanthemums were hot property in Europe, too. Enthusiastically hybridising horticulturists pounced on new introductions as they arrived, creating strains that were ever-more exciting, and while exhibition flowers were popular, it was the Arts and Crafts movement and designers such as William

Morris who cemented the chrysanthemums’ wider popularity as a design icon.

Chrysanthemum flowers are a composite of numerous smaller florets. A central boss of small fertile disk florets is surrounded by showy petals, and these are wildly variable. While many chrysanthemums still resemble innocent daisies, others have petals that are spoon-shaped or form tubes that coil and writhe like a botanical medusa. There are flowers that resemble tropical corals or jellyfish and others that are spidery, shaggy and louche; vague, slightly dissipated flowers that have seemingly lived life to the full.

Thanks to centuries of breeding, there are dozens of species of chrysanthemum and thousands of cultivars. And the reputation for complexity may well stem from an involved classification system that divides the flowers into 13 categories based on the shape and look of the flower, together with its colour and flowering time.

The descriptions border on the arcane: there are giant, Incurve flowers and flattish Decorative blooms. There are Singles and Semi-doubles; Charms and Cascades; and Pompon types with rounded buttons; plus a whole range of other categories and sub-categories, including the esotericsounding Spoon, Quill, Spider and even Brush and Thistle.

But for the gardener a snazzy naming convention is secondary to the nuts-andbolts growability of a plant and, while the exhibition varieties can be divas, there are plenty of garden-worthy chrysanthemums for us to choose from.

William Morris cemented the chrysanthemums’ wider popularity as a design icon

Feathery fountain grass pennisetum ‘Sky Rocket’ is set off by a bright surrounding blanket of purple, golden and orange ‘mums’, alongside bronze-toned heucheras, hypericum and imperata ‘Rubra’