BORDER CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 8, 4 October 1941, Page 14

BORDER CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Keep Raising Fresh Plants

Tn*the average garden border chrysanthemums are left to grow on year after year till they grow so large that they have to be divided and the stock thinned out wholesale. This is an unsatisfactory way of growing chrysanthemums. By raising new stock every season the plants are kept superbly healthy and vigorous and throw those monster blooms which everyone so admires.

If your old clumps are left undivided now, they are bound to become so overcrowded by midsummer that they will be hopelessly choked up with foliage and flower-buds, and the ultimate blooms will be small and poor. The method is to lift clump bodily with a fork and shake all the soil from it. Place it on a convenient bench and proceed to operate on it with a sharp knife. The young shoots round the outside of the clump are the ones to prize. Bach of these will have a nice tuft of young roots attached and it should be severed from the main clump so that as many as possible of these roots are retained. Each shoot will make a fine flowering plant, so estimate your requirements and then throw away the centre portion of the clump.

You can plant the shoots in the bed or border where you wish them to flower, or in a nursery bed prepared in a sheltered sunny position. The latter method is really the better, though it entails transplanting again, for the progress of the plants can be more carefully watched.

If planting directly into the flowering position, see that each shoot is quite Ift. from neighbouring plants. You can plant much more closely in a nursery bed, say, in rows 6in. apart, with a distance of 4in. between the plants. Fork over the soil, breaking it down to a fine tilth, and work in half a bucketful of leaf-mould or composted matter per square yard. Take out holes for the tiny plants with a trowel, so that there is sufficient room to spread out the roots nicely. Fill in with fine soil and press this down firmly. The young plants will soon reach a height of about. 6in.. and each growing tip must then be nipped out between finger and thumb,.