Every year
about this time I mourn the absence of old-fashioned garden
chrysanthemums. At one moment in time
chrysanthemums as they had been disappeared, to be replaced by a ubiquitous sea
of puffy yellow, russet and mauve supermarket mums. Precisely alike, totally lacking in
character, they pop up everywhere. At
three for $15 or thereabouts, you will see them at every house, on every scrap
of lawn, or flanking every driveway… a limitless supply of uniformity.
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| Supermarket Chrysanthemums |
Admittedly,
the large and varied chrysanthemum family of spiders, quill and spoons are
pretty labor-intensive, appealing to only the most dedicated gardeners. Once installed in your perennial bed,
chrysanthemums cannot be left alone and be expected to flourish from year to
year. Each spring they must be dug and
divided, the center of the plant discarded along with the old root system, and
the vigorous side shoots and their roots retained and replanted.
You’ll wind up
with a small plant, but it will shoot up at a healthy rate during the long
growing season. When the first shoots
reach three to four inches, usually by May, the main stem is established well
enough to start shaping the plant. Pinch
back the main stem to two or three leaves.
Each subsequent leaf stem gets pinched back to two good leaves. This continues with each “break” (the new
growth) until mid-July when pinching stops.
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| Single Mum |
You must
provide support by stout stakes, as the constant pinching produces big flowers
heads. You must also remember to
side-dress monthly, as they are heavy feeders.
Why do all
this? The flower heads are unparalleled
in their beauty, and arrive at a time when virtually everything else in the
garden is over. The family is large, and
the characteristics of the individual flowers vary widely. Chrysanthemum flowers are composed of many
individual rays or florets, and there are significant differences within the
family.
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| Spider Mum |
The spider
mums are distinguished by long, tubular rays, some of which grow longer than
the rest and appear to be reaching out to catch you in their web. Sometimes the tips are twisted or hooked,
increasing the spider-like appearance.
The single and
semi-double mums are the ones you might still find for sale in local nurseries at reasonable
prices. The spoons are similar to the
semi-doubles, except that the individual tips of the rays are
spoon-shaped. They have an open center,
but their cousins the quills do not; their florets are straight and tubular,
with open ends.
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| Quill Mum |
The giant
“football” mums look like cheerleaders’ pompoms. Technically, they are called irregular
incurves. The centers are fully closed,
the florets curve inward, and the bottom edge has a slightly skirted effect.
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| Football Mum |
Chrysanthemums
are not easy to finds these days. The
1970 catalog of White Flower Farms Nursery in Litchfield, Connecticut sold
twenty decorative mums, three pompoms, three spiders and five spoons. In 2014,
none. The big perennial catalogs no
longer supply chrysanthemums, but you can find sources and a useful handbook on
the National Chrysanthemum Society’s website www.mums.org.
Chrysanthemums
have a distinguished history. The
Chinese and Japanese have been growing them for over 3,000 years and you can
see representations of mums in their textiles, screens and ceramics. Visiting Buddhist monks brought the
chrysanthemum from China to Japan, and the Japanese were enchanted with this
flower, which they saw as a symbol of the sun.
It was so beloved of the early Emperors that the single chrysanthemum
became the Emperor’s personal symbol, and he ruled from the chrysanthemum
throne. Chrysanthemum Day in Japan is
still a significant festival event.
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| Japanese Textile |
Although
widely popular in the United States, in most of Europe chrysanthemums are
funeral flowers. In Italy, they are so
closely associated with death that they are never used in a festive or
celebratory context.
In recent
years, dahlias seem to have replaced chrysanthemums as the big, bold, showy
fall addition to the garden. They
require a somewhat elaborate procedure if you wish to keep them from year to year. To carry them through the winter, you have
to let the first frost blacken the foliage.
Then dig them up, leaving two inches of stem. Discard the damaged tubers, wash the good
ones and put them in the sun to dry, turning them occasionally. Each tuber, when thoroughly dry, then goes in
its own plastic bag. It’s closed tightly
and stored in a cool, dark basement until spring.
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| A Selection Of Dahlias |
I have not
been successful at this, and I discard dahlias after the last frost and start
with new tubers in the spring. If you
can’t find a good source for chrysanthemums try dahlias, but they are a poor
substitute. Having travelled
infrequently enough to have my dreams intact, I believe that in some small corner
of England there are still gardeners preparing their prize-winning
chrysanthemums for the coming Fair.
