Chrysanthemums

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 306, 25 September 1945, Page 5

Chrysanthemums

Those super-sized chrysanthemums which you see at shows, and usually regard as unattainable in your own garden, need not be beyond your reach. The important thing is to make a proper start —and then to keep them growing without cheek.

You may have purchased quality chrysanthemums —and these are easily obtainable at reasonable prices—but after their second year they deteriorate and you lose heart. Did you propagate them properly? That is the first stop (’hrysantheinums must be replanted every year for really good results. This month, or _ I liexl .', Illt the old crowns which are thick "’'th new shoots, and choosing the strongest shoots, pull them away from the old crown, each with a few roofs adhering to it. Each of these shoots will quickly develop into a new plant. The practice of dividing up old clumps and replanting is the commonest cause of failure. Therefore, always propagate bv moans of cuttings. But before putting your “rooted cutting” us w .e Ci ! it. into the soil, remember that, it will make a large plant by autumn, and will require plenty of food. Incorporate a large bucketful of old manure or compost into the site intended for each new plant, and stake as you plant, as staking later in the season causes unnecessary root disturbance. The manure will take care of the basic food requirements of the plant for the season, but liberal doses of liquid manure when the flower buds begiu to appear will improve their colour and increase their size.

The. main point to remember in keeping chrysanthemums “on the move’ is that they must never want for water in dry weather. As they are liable ,to be attacked by mildew and other diseases which are encouraged by moist a,tmospheres, do not water by spraying the foliage, but by saturating the soil. A mulch or compost, or lawn clippings, in midsummer will help to conserve moisture, in addition to supplementing the food supply.

YVhen the chrysanthemums reach a height of about one foot, pinch out their centres to encourage side shoots, and when they, in turn, grow to about twelve inches, pinch them back too. This encourages a bushy plant. Later in the season, they are disbudded to produce those exhibition-size flowers so much admired, but thfit technique will be described in season. Vegetable Peas If you want green peas for Christmas and New Year, start making sowings at fortnightly intervals. There are no peas so delicious as those young and tender ones picked straight from your own vine and eaten with the traditional roast lamb and mint sauce. Apart from their superior flavour to shop-purchased supplies, peas picked, cooked, and eaten the same day are richer in food values than when kept, even if only for a short time,

I’eas should be listed among the toprank vegetables in every-garden, and ure worth a bit of extra trouble to grow them really well. They contain the important elements, calcium, phosphorous and iron, plus four of the vitamins—A, 81, 82, and C. They are rich in protein too, and therefore contain more nutriment than many better publicized members of the vegetable kingdom. To grow really good crops of peas, choose a sunny, well-drained site, and enrich it with liberal supplies of organic matter. Composted material is excellent for the purpose. Two other essential requirements are potnsh and lime. The former can be provided by scattering wood ashes over the plot at the rate of six ounces to each square yard, or sulphate of potash, 2oz. Slaked lime should be worked into the soil shortly before sowing at about three ounces to the square yard. Although organic matter is important, don’t overdo it, otherwise you will reap bumi>er crops of sappy green foliage and few pods. If you can’t provide the organic matter (compost, manure or leafmound), or if it is of very indifferent quality, the following mixture of artificial fertilizers will be found beneficial: superphosphate, two parts, sulphate of ammonia, one part, worked into the soil at the rate of two ounces per square yard, about a week in advance of sowing.

Sow the peas in shallow drills, about four feet apart, and allow two inches between each pea (they will not stand transplanting). Slake when about six inches high. At this time of year sow an intermediate variety, and later in the month switch to the taller types.