Garden Mum Growing
For a number of years, Chrysanthemum enthusiast have grown outdoors many of the large-flowered mums. These late-blooming incurves, spiders and other odd types have better texture and longer lasting qualities than garden mums. They grow these largely for show purposes and for a certain thrill of accomplishment that garden mums do not provide.
In the past, it was difficult to obtain cuttings of the large flowered mums or even to know what kinds to attempt. But by attending shows and talking with other chrysanthemum lovers you can soon chose the most appealing varieties, and then experiment over a period of several years to see what results could be obtained with the same mums outdoors under your conditions.
If you grow good mums, you ought to enter a show, partly for the worth-while service you can render the beginner who may be completely at sea about what choices to make. More progress has been made in mums over the years than many other flower. Many old varieties are worthless compared to the new, and should not take valuable space. Of course, not all new ones are good or all old ones undesirable. That is why it is necessary to visit shows and gardens of growers who specialize in mums. There is a mum for every purpose but you sometimes have to hunt for it.
Although we prefer to see a variety at a show before ordering it, we have found that almost any variety that blooms by November 1st in the New York area can be grown successfully outdoors. Varieties that bloom up to November 8 can be attempted if some sort of protective covering is used.
The big mums should have a bed by themselves, for they dont fit very well into any landscaping design like small front yard landscaping if you give them the best care. Best care, for show purposes usually, means limiting each plant to not more than 3 stems, which develop near the base of the plant after the first pinch, and removing all but one flower bud to a stem. This makes the plants grow into such giants, that they make too startling an accent in the garden and small yard landscaping. However, if you I dont do these two things, the mums can well be used in the garden picture with other material. You ought to disbud them at least to some extent, even if you dont want prize blooms, to prevent flowers from crowding each other. The blossoms remaining after disbudding also will be larger and more lasting than those of the common hardy mums.
Besides the large incurves and spiders, a number of good pompons of splendid substance will grow outdoors very successfully and they are more frost-resistant than the incurves. Some grow 5 and 6 feet tall; in fact, it is usually true that the later the bloom, the taller the plant. They may be kept lower by starting the cuttings late, say in late May or early June. This wont affect the blooming time much. The only advantages in making early cuttings are that plants will grow sturdy before hot weather and, in the case of hardy varieties, plants will be bushier because they will have at least one additional pinching.
