Use shoot tips to make more plants
Pinch out for more blooms and easy propagation
When I was growing up my dad always used to grow chrysanthemums and I never appreciated them as I should have done. To me, they lacked the glossy pizazzz of dahlias and the scent of roses and I basically ignored their presence.
Now that I’m older, with a garden of my own, I have come to appreciate their presence in borders and planters adding reliable colour in the autumn when much else is starting to fade, and they’re ideal for the vase too.
Chrysanthemum are easy-going perennials that like free-draining fertile soil or compost and a sheltered spot. This month they will appreciate some extra feeding with nitrogen to promote bushy growth and potassium to encourage flower buds. The plants are usually hardy down to around -5C, and if temperatures reliably drop further than that in your garden then it’s best to lift them in autumn and overwinter them undercover.
I planted a bedding chrysanth in a patio pot late last summer and it didn’t do much at all, though it did survive the winter. When they start growing again in spring, the advice is to pinch out the growing tips when they get to around 20cm (8in) to encourage bushy growth.
I have done this and have decided to treat the pinched out tips as softwood cuttings to make more plants (see below).
Now, for the next few months, I will feed and water and mulch my parent plant, keep it free from pests and diseases and look forward to an array of blooms brightening up the patio this autumn.
