ON GROWING CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 20, 14 May 1892, Page 502

ON GROWING CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

HIS bright, cheery flower has most appropriately been styled the Queen of Autumn, and no crowned head of Europe can boast longer or more blue-blooded descent than the chrysanthemum, which though originally a wild flower, indigenous to China and Japan, has for thousands of years been cherished by the beauty-loving Orientals as a sacred flower, and used in profusion in their temples and sacred enclosures.

Some of our favourite flowers that have been domesticated within the memory of those now living, have shown marked improvement in that short period. What would that improvement be in hundreds of years’ time ’ In the chrysanthemum of to day, we see the result of two thousand years of training and selection by the Japanese, aided and supplemented by the hybridization of our own skilful florists. So numerous are the vaiieties of chrysanthemums that it is necessary to divide them into several classes or types, to prevent confusion. The earliest divisions were into Chinese, Japanese, and Pompone types. The Chinese are mostly flowers of medium size and of regular outline, the majority having short shell-like petals, that incurve beautifully toward the centre of the flower. The Japanese are larger, and of loose, informal form. Nearly all the odd, feathery whorled, and cut petalled varieties belong to this class, and the greatest range of colouring is found among them. They have perhaps the most admirers of any one class. The Pompone are the babies among chrysanthemums, having immense numbers of small, but often exquisite blossoms. Of late years several other classes have been added. The most important of these aie the single, anemone-flowered, and needle-petalled sections. The so called single are, in reality, semi-double, having two or more rows of flat ray petals, surrounding a centre of short tubular petals. The ray petals are soft, loose and • fluffy,’ while the shortpetalled tubular centre forms a rich golden disc that is much admired. The anemone class are also but semidouble, and the high cushion-like centre is the most prominent feature of the flower. Generally, but not always, the centre is of a different colour from the outer petals. The anemones have not the beauty of the Chinese or Japanese sections, but they have so much life and character of their own that a few of them must be included in every first class collection. The needle petalled or quilled varieties are as ugly as it is possible for a flower to be when but half expanded ; but the best varieties are often extremely beautiful when fully open, and always attract attention by their oddity. Their petals are very irregular as to leugtli, their blossoms generally flat and wide. Indeed the largest flowers in the whole are found in this section, in their Japanese home, so travellers tell us. With the Japs they

are great favourites. With us they are valued for variety. Not only do these sections of this great family differ widely from each other, but there are many minor diversities to be met with ; flowers with straight, incurved or recurved petals; flowers with narrow, medium, and wide petals, or half quilled, pointed or toothed ; while the colours include every shade of white, cream, amber, yellow, pink, crimson, lilac, and purple. The most pleasing colours are the soft, clear whites, and the pure, rich yellows. A chrysanthemum fancier will choose to please himself, but a little help in making selections may not come amiss to those with less experience, Some chrysanthemums stand more frost without injury than others. Any of them will stand a few light frosts, but a hard freeze soon discolours them, and robs them of their beauty. Some people grow their chrysanthemums in solid beds, driving a stake at each coiner of the bed, placing two tall ones at the back, and two shorter ones in front. To these canvas or unbleached muslin is fastened in such a manner as to readily admit of rolling up each day to display the flowers, and of being spread out each night over the plants, the stakes being tall enough to hold the canvas up from touching the plants beneath, and so mashing them. If protected in this way, all but the very latest varieties can be grown in the open ground, and a gorgeous outdoor display of these beauties is well worth working for. The number of indoor chrysanthemums must depend largely upon the amount of space at one’s disposal. Most people could grow more chrysanthemums in the house than they do, and certainly, nothing is more easily grown, or more beautiful when in blossom. I have seen thirty varieties grown in one bay-window, and a magnificent floral display it was. In that case, a dozen of the choicest varieties were grown singly in large pots, and these pots were ranged in a row on the lower step of a large plant stand, the upper steps being tilled with a miscellaneous collection of other house plants. Then the remaining dozen and a-half sorts were treated as tub plants, two to four kinds, carefully selected to contrast iu colour and to bloom at the same time, being planted together in a tub or box. These boxes weie ranged in rows either side of the stand, making two solid banks of bloom, while just above and back of them were the dozen varieties on the plant shelf already spoken of. For a month this window was a marvel of beauty. Their care had simply been liberal food and water, and an occasional pinching in. Could any plant ask for less ? Of course in a common window fewer plants can be grown, but every one should have at least two large-flowered varieties, a pure white and a golden-yellow. Those who cannot grow the more tender house plants should grow the chrysanthemum largely, as by a careful selection of sorts, early, medium and late, they can have them in steady bloom for three months. It is only of late years that really late varieties have been known. Among these are Christmas Eve, Edna Craig, white, Mrs Wheeler, red and gold, T. F. McFadden, purple, Mrs Frank Thompson, pink, and Gov. Guernsey, yellow. The cooler the room in which chrysanthemums are kept, the later the blooms will develop, and the longer they will last. After blooming, they can be removed to a dark closet or cellar until spring, where, if not kept wet enough to rot, they will come up in good shape the next spring. Their treatment is really very simple. Cuttings of the soft new wood root readily in the late winter and early spring. These rooted cuttings should be planted, one in a small pot or several in a larger one, as the soil is apt to sour unless filled with roots. When danger of frost is over, the young plants can either be planted out in the garden in mellow soil or kept in pots on the verandah, where they can have an abundance of light and air. Either in pots or in open ground, they need an abundance of water, and an occasional ‘ pinching back ’ through the summer to induce a stocky well branched growth. Those planted out should be lifted by the time the buds appear, if they are wanted for house decoration. Though the chrysanthemum transplants easily, it pays to lift them carefully with all their roots intact, to water them well, and shade them for a few days, until all signs of drooping have disappeared. Solifted, every blossom will open perfectly, and last long in perfection. A. little liquid manure, given once a week after the buds appear, will largely increase the size of the blooms, for the chrysanthemum requires high feeding to bring it out. The immense blooms seen at the chrysanthemum shows, sometimes seven or eight inches in diameter, are produced by systematic high feeding and disbudding. The plant are never allowed to suffer for water ; liquid fertilizers are given frequently, and but one flower is allowed to a branch, and it a terminal one, all the others having been pinched out as soon as they appeared. However, the most of us would prefer more in number, and less in size, and, unless intended for exhibition, I would never recommend extreme disbudding. Nearly all of the larger varieties blossom more perfectly if a portion of their buds are removed, but the most of us would prefer a cluster of blooms on each stem to a solitary flower, be that flower ever so large and fine. The only insect that is apt to trouble the chrysanthemum is the black apliide or plant louse. The florists recommend dashing clear cold water forcibly over the foliage to destroy them. They are an obstinate pest, and sometimes very troublesome. As this particular form of aphide seems to trouble the chrysanthemum alone, if no lousy ones are introduced into the collection, there will be no trouble with them. Two or three times I had my whole collection infested by admitting a few lousy plants ; that taught me a lesson, and now I keep each new plant by itself until I am certain that it harl ons no foe. It is always easier to keep a plant from becoming infested thin it is to clean it after they take possession of it.