Chrysanthemum
The family of Chrysanthemums is a very large one, and contains such various orders that it must be treated under several heads; the Annuals, the Perennials, and the descendents of Chrysanthemum Indicum, which can hardly be classed with either of these.

Chrysanthemums, Annual.
Hardy Annual.
2 to 3 feet.
Colours various; flowering July to September.

Easily grown plants with daisy-shaped flowers, a circle of flat petals surrounding a yellow disc. The seed should be sown in the open, a little later than the bulk of the hardy annuals; say the first week of April. The seedlings must be thinned vigorously. The best kinds are the hybrids of Chrysanthemum Carinatum, such as tricolour, Burrigdeanum (flowers with concentric circles of red, yellow and white), Morning Star (pale yellow), purpureum (purple shades). These are single flowers. The Chrysanthemum Coronarium breed are bolder-growing plants with single and double flowers, yellow and white. The gardener who does not care to grow separate sorts, should buy a packet of mixed seed of good strains; most seeds men supply a blend which they call “Special Mixture” and this, if from a genuine firm, will satisfy his needs.

Chrysanthemum, perennial.
Hardy Perennial.

The garden counterparts of the Ox-eyes or Moon Daisies of the fields, with single flowers whose yellow centre is surrounded by white petals. They vary a good deal in height and in time of flowering, which extends from June to the November frosts. They are all absolutely hardy, not particular to soil, but enjoy a deep root-run and an open situation. Pieces of the root should be planted from November to March; the only after-care that the clumps should need is a good soaking in very dry weather and the support of a stake and a girth of tar-string if the stems show signs of toppling in wind or rain. The plants are insatiable feeders, and quickly exhaust the ground; they should be broken up and replanted on fresh soil every third year. The following are some of the best sorts:

• Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum grandiflorum. 3 feet. July and August.
• Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum Daviesii. Earliest flowering, May and June.
• Chrysanthemum Maximum (or atratum). Eighteen inches. Large flowers on stiff stems. June to September.
• Chrysanthemum Maximum. Margaret Marwood. 2 feet. Very large flowers. June to September.
• Chrysanthemum Uliginosum. (Pyrethrum uliginosum). 5 to 6 feet, October and November. The latest Ox-eye; a very strong grower, forming when well established a great sheaf of flowers.

Under the perennial Chrysanthemums must be classed the tender kind Frutescens, commonly called Marguerite or Paris Daisy, largely used as a summer bedding plant. There are two varieties, one with finely-cut bluish-green foliage, and white daisy-flowers, and the other with stronger leaves, and the flowers of a sulphur yellow with darker centre. Both form during the summer large bushes with woody stems. If taken up carefully and potted before the autumn frosts they will continue to flower for some weeks in a greenhouse or a room. They are propagated by cuttings, small firm shoots being slipped off from the plants in August or early September (avoid sappy tops and flowering sprays) and dibbled in boxes of sandy soil. The boxes must be kept fairly moist for a fortnight or so; they should be stored through the winter in a frame or greenhouse secure from frost, but in a cool atmosphere. In March the plants may be shifted into small pots, re-potted if necessary, and should be put out with the rest of the bedding plants at the end of May.

Chrysanthemum: “Summer” or “Early Flowering” Japanese, Pompons, etc.

These are the garden representatives of the autumnal flower which has appropriated to itself the name “Chrysanthemum” without further qualification. Though it is not possible to produce in the open air the enormous blooms of the shows, it is easy to grow plants with a wealth of moderate-sized flowers, infinitely finer in general effect than the pinched and trained specimens of the fancier. There has been during the last five or six years a great increase in the attention given to out-door chrysanthemums, and a considerable improvement in their quality; and it is to be hoped that this may be one sign of the return of a sounder taste, and of the ultimate disappearance of the gigantic mop-headed flowers from the shows. The chief point in growing out-door Chrysanthemums is to choose the right kinds. It is no use to plant out cuttings of the winter-flowering greenhouse varieties; early flowerers, blooming not later than October, must be obtained. Strong cuttings of these should be put out early in May, in well-worked and rich soil. They may be planted in mixed borders, but they look better massed together. A sunny, somewhat sheltered site will suit them better than a damp shaded one; and if a wall or solid wooden fence, with any aspect between east and west, can be spared, they will do all the better for being trained against it. It should be remembered that they form their flowers in the season of autumn dews and early frosts, and a small amount of shelter and extra warmth will sometimes make all the difference to their display. Under the bet conditions a strong October frost will destroy all the bloom.
The culture after planting consists in keeping cleat of weeds, watering and mulching if rain fails, and nailing to walls, or tying out to sticks in the open. There is no need to do any stopping or disbudding whatever; but if an old plant should send up twenty or thirty stems, they may be reduced to a dozen of the strongest. After the flowers are over, the stems must be cut down close to the ground; the safest way to keep a stock of plants through the winter is to fork them up carefully and plant them closely together in a frame. The lights, with a mat in the severest weather, will be sufficient protection till spring. In light soils and kindly aspects the plants will come through the winter very well in the open; but they cannot be regarded as hardy perennials; the clumps soon deteriorate, and if left to itself a good collection will altogether die out in a few years. Cuttings should be taken from the stout shoots which show about the crown in February, dibbled in pots of sandy soil – four or fiver in a 4 ½ inch pot – and kept moist in a frame or cool greenhouse. They will soon root; and when the tops begin to grow, they must be potted separately in 4 ½ inch pots of rich compost with good drainage; after being hardened like other bedding-out stuff, they should be planted out early in May.
The following is – at the time of writing – a list of the best summer-flowering or out-door Chrysanthemums; but every season there are additions and improvements, and the gardener must study the nurserymen’s catalogues and the advertisements in the gardening papers.

“JAPANESE” VARIETIES

Carrie, deep yellow.
Gertie, salmon.
Goacher’s Crimson, fine.
Horace Martin, strong yellow, fine.
Marie Masse, silvery rose, or rosy lilac.
Orange Masse.
Harvest Home, crimson and yellow.
Ambrose Thomas, bronze.
Mme. Desgrange, light yellow centre, paler outer petals, fading to white; an old sort, but one of the best garden chrysanthemums.
Ryecroft Glory, yellow, sometimes orange; an old sort, but good.
M.E. Grunerwald, pink.
Georges Menier, deep crimson.
Market White.
Source d’Or, orange, really a pot chrysanthemum, but very effective in the garden in a fine autumn.
Robbie Burns, light pink.

POMPONS

Martinmas, pink.
F. Pele, dark red.
Mme. E. Lefort, reddish orange.
St. Crouts, pink.
White S. Crouts.
Flora, yellow.
Piercy’s Seedlings, orange.