THE GARDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27358, 6 April 1950, Page 9

THE GARDEN

Contributed by D. TANNOCK, A.H.R.H.S.

The chrysanthemum in its varied types and colours is the most popular of autumn flowers, being alike useful for furnishing the greenhouse, for exhibition purposes, for a display in the garden, and for providing cut flowers for floral work and bouse decoration. It is well named the Queen of Autumn flowers. It is really a hardy plant and the only reason for placing' it under glass, or cover of some kind, is to protect the flowers from wet and frost. EARLY FLOWERING CHRYSANTHEMUMS The early flowering or summer chrysanthemums are really autumn flowering, being at their best in the month of April, when the summer bedding plants are on the wane, and are most useful for providing a display in beds or borders by themselves, or as groups in the herbaceous border. In Britain they are extensively used for this purpose, and it is rather surprising that they are not more extensively used here. This type is a real amateur’s plant, quite hardy, easy to propagate and not difficult to grow. It can be propagated by means pf division of the old plants in the spring, though this is a rough and ready method, and it is much more satisfactory when grown from cuttings every season. The old plants are cut over as soon as the flowers are past their best, the plants are lifted carefully and placed in boxes, which are a little deeper than the ordinary sepdling tray, and packed round with a light soil. These are placed in a cold frame for the winter, but are given plenty of air to encourage a sturdy growth, and the sashes are put on only during frost, and very wet weather. In the spring, when the shoots are about the length of a finger, they are taken, with, or without, a little root, and rut into boxes or pots of sandy soil, these being placed in a frame and shaded from sun and kept close until rooting has taken place. They are then lined out in boxes at three inches apart, or potted up into four-inch pots, and again placed in the cold frame until they root into the new soil. They are then gradually hardened off, and are fit to plant out in their flowering positions, or to be lined out in nursery rows in October at two to two feet six inches apart. They should be pinched back either before planting out or shortly after, but thereafter no further stopping is required. When they are grown for a display in the garden it Is not necessary to do any disbudding: but to get good Howers for decorative or exhibition purposes, the buds can be reduced to one on each shoot. They can be grown on in pots or tins when required for taking the place of summer bedding plants in the open garden in the autumn, but considering the ease in which thev can be transplanted from one part of the garden to another when in bud. it is much less work to grow them in nursery rows during the summer. Before being transplanted t v e soil can be firmed round them, then watered well, and the roots cut all round w'th a sharn spade. They are then lifted with the ball of roots intact, planted out in their flowering positions, watered in well, and sprayed overhead in the evenings should the weather b° dry. The colours are pink, bronze, yellow, white, salmon, terra-cotta, apricot and fawn. DECORATIVE TYPES These are somewhat loose and vague types which embrace flowers of a very miscellaneous description. Some are shaggy Japanese varieties, which cannot reach exhibition quality,- but will produce abundant sprays of small flowers. Others have dense masses of reflexing petals or a build which makes the flowers last a long time in a cut state. Some have quilled petals, and some are semidouble. It is essential that a decorative chrysanthemum should be possessed of a vigorous constitution and free-flowering habit, and is particularly suited to the requirements and capabilities of the amateur grower, who has scanty leisure, and accommodation. It is by commencing in a small way with a few decoratlves that a beginner may acquire experience which will lead to becoming a successful specialist,

Many amateurs with a small garden can make some pocket money by growing decorative chrysanthemums for the florists. The instructions given for the growing of the early-flowering types in thp garden and lifting and transplanting them to other positions when in bud can be applied to the decorative types generaly. They can be planted out in the tomato house or potted or boxed up and developed under glass, where they will provide cut flowers until well on In the winter. The large-flowered Japanese types are really exhibition flowers, and, though many make fun of them, calling them inverted mops, etc., thev are certainly a main feature of horticultural shows, and they represtht careful and skilful cultivation for a period of about 12 months. The rooting of the cuttings, potting these up into three-inch pots when rooted, then into fives, and finally into eights to tens as the plants develop requires constant attention. Then there is the watering, selection of the right bud, feeding and finally housing, and for exhibition purposes the dressing of the flowers. All this would occupy more space than is available at present. SINGLE-FLOWERED TYPE

These have become very popular for exhibition purposes of late, and many good varieties have been raised by enthusiastic amateurs. They can be grown in the same way as the decoratives for cut flowers, and when of moderate size and borne on long and slender stems are well adapted for use either in the greenhouse. the garden, or for house decoration. Strictly speaking, a single flower should have only one row of broad florets surrounding the cushion-like disc florets, but it is customary to include those with three or four rows of ray florets. To obtain sprays of from three to five flowers of almost equal development the top bud can be pinched out. In the anemone flowered types we have an outer circle of florets as in the singles, but in place of the tight even disc of golden tubes, there is a cushion centre of a colour corresponding with, or somewhat'lighter than, the outer row of florets. Some, like Beautiful Lady, have bright pink ray florets with a creamy white cushion. They last well in water when picked. > Pompoms are quite diminutive flower* sometimes less than an inch in diameter. They are, however, borne in great quantity and are useful for edging groups of the taller growing kinds. The cascade types are really single flowered plants which can be trained in a drooping habit, and are suitable for furnishing the front of the stages in the greenhouse. Recently a type called Charms have been introduced. These are bushy plants which develop naturally, with only one stop in the early stages.. The plants measure from two to three feet across, and 18 inches or so high, and are completely covered .with small single flowers They can be raised from seed sown in gentle heat in August, and the plants are grown on outside during the summer months. This type received a gold medal from the National Chrysanthemum Society. The Korean types are a very hardy kind with single flowers which are more like glorified Michaelmas daisies or single pyrethrums. The colours are warm shades of pinks, bronze, gold and red, and are very suitable for house or border decoration.