Chrysanthemums have an image problem in this country. In China and Japan,
where they have been cultivated for 3,000 years, they are revered, but here
we have suffered an overload of those year-round, cellophane-wrapped,
yellow-centred cut flowers in buckets on petrol-station forecourts. They
last well in a vase, but they are stiff and rather soulless, and can be hard
to arrange.
In garden centres at this time of year, “charms” fill the tables: neat,
cushion-shaped chrysanthemum plants, smothered by blooms in various shades
of pink, red or gold. They do a good job of cheering up the entrance to the
house for a few weeks, but then have to be thrown on the compost heap, as
they won’t survive the cold winter temperatures. If you attend flower shows,
you’ll know about exhibition chrysanths, too. These are displayed in ranks
of cut flowers in a bewildering array of shapes and forms, from daisy-like
singles, pompons and globe-shaped “incurves” to dome-centred “anemones”.
They are the result of many hours of cosseting in greenhouses, in an attempt
to produce the perfect bloom.
There’s another group, however, that is easy to grow, will last for months in
the garden and gives excellent cut flowers: it’s time to embrace the garden
“mum”. These hardy plants survive outdoors all year, providing splashes of
intense colour at a time when much of the rest of the garden has turned
shades of buff and brown. They come in an array of shapes, colours and
forms, and, if you grow a selection of them, you can expect a succession of
flower heads from August to December.
Many of them even smell nicer. Instead of the bitter, musty whiff of florists’
chrysanths, some have a sweet honey fragrance that adds to the pleasure of
the cut flowers when you bring them indoors.
Hardy chrysanthemums used to be a favourite border plant, valued by Gertrude
Jekyll and Margery Fish, celebrated revivers of the cottage-garden style in
the early decades of the 20th century, for filling that late-autumn gap and
providing a supply of cut flowers for the house. Then, gradually, they
vanished from gardens and catalogues.
Some varieties were lost when gardens were requisitioned for vegetable-growing
during the second world war. Others disappeared because growers were busy
producing yet more cultivars in exotic shades and shapes for the show bench.
Now, however, hardy garden varieties are making a comeback, thanks to a
number of specialist nurseries.
Judy Barker, 66, has also made a substantial contribution to their return to
favour. A retired garden-centre employee who has been collecting and
trialling them on her allotment in London Colney, Hertfordshire, she has
about 200 cultivars in her National Collection — five of which the Royal
Horticultural Society has given the Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
Four kinds of chrysanthemum make up the hardy group: Koreans and rubellums,
which are classified together, as there are so many crosses, and come in a
variety of flower forms, from simple daisies to semi-doubles and doubles;
outdoor sprays, which need really good drainage to get through winter; and
Japanese pompons, which carry neat button flowers. Barker has all four in
her collection, and mixes new varieties with old.
Stepping through the gates to the allotment, it is immediately obvious which
are her plots, as they form bands of jewel-like colours amid the greens and
yellows of the end-of-season veg. Closer up, the variety in the flower
shapes — some with petals that curve backwards, some forming ragged-edged
profiles, some with overlapping layers of petals — is revealed. Then there
is the difference in habit. Some are solid clumps, such as ‘Mrs Jessie
Cooper’, where the cerise flowers stand proud of the foliage, demanding to
be noticed, while varieties such as the brick-red ‘Rumpelstilzchen’ have a
more relaxed, airy look that would sit well in a naturalistic border.
There are also cushion plants with multiple flowers sitting on top, like a
colourful beret. Particularly attractive are the autumnal shades — the
clarets and rusty golds of two of Barker’s AGMs, ‘Ruby Mound’ and ‘Ruby
Raynor’.
It was Barker’s desire for cut flowers for the house and church that got her
going 11 years ago. “I started to look for chrysanthemums, but all I could
find were the big balls with the side shoots stripped off. I thought,
‘They’re not the ones I remember growing in Grandma’s garden.’”
She discovered a few nurseries that were breeding the old-fashioned ones and
acquired some more from plant exchanges. Soon, people were offering her
clumps that had survived for 30 or 40 years in their gardens. ‘Perry’s
Peach’, for example, a peachy-pink single, was discovered in an old garden
in Whitby, North Yorkshire, by a couple who ran a nursery, and was named
after them. Some plants arrive unnamed for Barker to trial, to see how hardy
and disease-free they prove. The old varieties especially are magnets for
beneficial insects; the late-flowering ones are covered in hoverflies and
butterflies, even into November.
The conditions on the allotment are not exactly ideal for hardy chrysanths,
which thrive in a free-draining soil: it is exposed to a cold north wind,
the soil is heavy loam and the beds flood. That said, she points out a bed
of sturdy plants that includes ‘Mary Stoker’, with single apricot flowers,
and ‘Tapestry Rose’, with single pink ones. “Last year, this bed was
underwater for several days and froze, but look at them now. Aren’t they
lovely?”
With the exception of a few plants that really dislike winter wettings (she
lifts and brings them under cover), after mulching and feeding in spring,
most cope well with Barker’s “no pampering” rule, save for a monthly dose of
liquid seaweed in the growing season. In fact, she believes that overfeeding
and spraying make for soft plants that are susceptible to pests and diseases.
If you are growing these chrysanths primarily for cutting, it makes sense to
find them a spot in the veg garden or allotment. For border appeal, however,
combining them with grasses and other late-flowering perennials enhances
their more relaxed look. One of the oldest in Barker’s collection is ‘Julie
Lagravère’, with tiny, deep-maroon pompons that flower until December and
combine beautifully with short pennisetum grasses. Its leaves turn beetroot
when the temperature drops, as do those of another old variety, ‘Emperor of
China’, which has silvery-pink spoon-shaped petals.
Tall grasses such as miscanthus and Calamagrostis brachytricha can act
as supports for the taller chrysanths; plant shorter, clumping species such
as Anemanthele lessoniana in front to obscure any legginess.
Heucheras make a good foil for apricot chrysanths, sedums for pink ones and
kniphofias for hot shades.
With Barker’s trials and specialist growers such as Southview Nurseries, in
Eversley, Hampshire, and Halls of Heddon, in Tyne and Wear (which has been
growing exhibition varieties since 1928), selling a wide range of plants and
rooted cuttings, it seems hardy chrysanths are firmly back on the map and
into the borders.
TOP 10 HARDY PERFORMERS
‘Innocence’: Pale-pink single flowers with yellow centres, October and
November ‘Lucy Simpson’: Bronze single flowers, September and October ‘Mary
Stoker’: Apricot-yellow single flowers, from September and October
‘Mei-Kyo’: Pink pompons, October to December.
‘Mrs Jessie Cooper’: Magenta single flowers with yellow centres, October to
December ‘Nantyderry Sunshine’ AGM:
Rich yellow semi-pompons, October and November ‘Paul Boissier’: Green-centred
orange single flowers, September to November ‘Ruby Mound’ AGM: Deep-maroon
double flowers, October and November ‘Ruby Raynor’ AGM: Golden double
flowers, September and October ‘Tapestry Rose’: Lipstick-pink single flowers
with yellow centres, October
Judy Barker’s collection is open by appointment. Call 01727 822564 or
e-mail judy.barker1@btopenworld.com
Suppliers: Southview Nurseries (0118 973 2206, southviewnurseries.co.uk),
Halls of Heddon (01661 852445, hallsofheddon.co.uk),
Daisy Roots (01992 582401, daisyroots.com),
Norwell Nurseries (01636 636337, norwellnurseries.co.uk)
Keeping them healthy
- Chrysanths do best in a sunny, well-drained spot.
- Dig in plenty of compost or manure before planting, and add blood, fish and
bone fertiliser to the hole. Mulch around the plant.
- Apply a liquid feed, such as seaweed, monthly from June to September.
Taller, more lax varieties may need support.
- Thin out weedy stems in spring and divide the plants every two or four
years, cutting away any old wood.
- Varieties marked 21 in the RHS Plant Finder (apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder)
are garden chrysanths. Plant them in spring.
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