Recently work has been done on the fall blooming chrysanthemums that is going to revolutionize their culture and popularity. These mums no longer have to be pinched three times each growing season to force them to branch and not get leggy and flop at bloom time. The stems of the Belgian mums are also not brittle as with traditional mums and they bloom more abundantly. Below are a couple articles with source URL's to let you know about them.
RHS Journals
http://www.rhs.org.uk/publications/pubs/garden0801/chrysanthemum.aspThe Garden
August 2001Mum's the Word
Chrysanthemums are a highlight of the autumn garden and, due to breakthroughs in breeding, are enjoying a revival in popularity. Lia Leendertz examines the recent developments
Chrysanthemums have always suffered from an image problem. They have been lumped together with dahlias and other brightly coloured perennials as fusty, old-fashioned and high-maintenance - everything that we now try to avoid in our gardens. They conjure up images of regimented bedding schemes in clashing colours.
However, like dahlias, they are enjoying a revival. Gardeners are again realising that the colour range and long-flowering ability of chrysanthemums can fill a void in the autumn garden. The moment the glories of summer begin to wane, chrysanthemums step in.
Former Superintendent of the Glasshouses at RHS Garden Wisley and chrysanthemum enthusiast Ray Waite describes chrysanthemums as the 'queens of autumn'. 'Nothing can touch chrysanthemums at that time of year. Even the glasshouse cultivars only need a little protection to keep flowering until Christmas,' he says. For Ray, the end of the year is the best time to enjoy them. 'They are really an autumn treat,' he says, 'as their colours actually improve in cooler weather.'ABOVE: Before his retirement, Ray Waite was responsible for some breathtaking displays of chrysanthemums in the cold glasshouses at RHS Garden Wisley
Cushion mums
The big chrysanthemum success story of recent years, however, is the 'cushion mum', which is able to flower at both the beginning and end of the growing season. Cushion mums are triggered to flower by warm night temperatures of around 10-12°C (50-54°F), unlike most chrysanthemums, which flower in response to the shortening days of late summer.
The development of cushion mums began just nine years ago. Retired breeder and member of the RHS Chrysanthemum Committee Barry Machin says, 'Breeders and home gardeners are always looking for novelty. Breeders realised that developments in chrysanthemums were occurring around the world that could be brought together to create a plant with all the qualities we desired: a long flowering period, compact growth and striking flowers.'
American breeders Yoder Bothers developed many early-flowering chrysanthemums that are suitable for growing in the garden, and have an impressive range of flower form and colour. Cultivars of Belgian chrysanthemums bloomed in late summer, but had a neat, rounded form, similar to that of a clipped box ball. Commercial breeder Peter Wain managed to combine the desirable qualities of each. The resulting plants are early-flowering and compact with a wide range of flower colour and form, with many cultivars that will flower well into autumn.
The unusual flowering time gives gardeners two seasons of interest. A plant bought in bud in spring will give a good show of flowers and can then be planted out into the garden. It will then bloom again that autumn, until the first frost, as a much larger plant. Cushion mums are hardy in all but the coolest and wettest areas of Britain and so will come through winter to flower again the following year. They can survive in the garden for several years. Although they will increase in breadth over the years, they should not grow any taller than their original size, unlike the plants that used to be sold as pot mums, which were heavily treated with growth-retarding chemicals in order to keep them compact.Charms and Cascades
Another trend in chrysanthemums has its origins in Japan, where perennial chrysanthemums grow wild. Charm and Cascade cultivars have been subject to a wave of recent interest, but they are not new to British gardeners. Cascades were widely grown in the United Kingdom before the Second World War for glasshouse and interior display. Wallace Farr, who is Chairman of the RHS Chrysanthemum Committee and General Manager of the National Chrysanthemum Society, says, 'Cascades were considered country gents' flowers as they required high levels of maintenance and a fair amount of space. They have an amazing array of flower form and colour, but they declined in popularity here because of their leggy growth.'
The native chrysanthemum has long been associated with the Imperial family in Japan, which partly explains the esteem in
which the flower is held there. Semi-trailing Cascades (back) were developed in Japan, but the compact Charm cultivars (foreground) were raised from them in the UK
However, this growth makes them easy to train, and is the reason for their popularity in Japan. Gardeners there treat chrysanthemums as fast-growing bonsai and fashion them into a wide range of shapes using careful pruning and training techniques (see Ancient sagas, The Garden, Nov 1998, pp772-5). Ray Waite has experimented with these methods in the glasshouses at Wisley, and will be discussing the techniques at the Chrysanthemum Day there on 22 August (see note below). At this year's Chelsea Flower Show he displayed the traditional Japanese technique of using flowering rooted cuttings of chrysanthemums to clothe a figure. The roots of the plants are washed and wrapped in moss before being carefully tied onto the figure's frame. When traditional Japanese gardeners carry out this technique, they often make more than 1,000 individual ties in order to clothe each figure.
For those who are unable, or unwilling, to carry out the intensive training required by Cascades, Charms provide a good alternative. They arose at the Suttons Seeds nurseries in the 1930s as sports from a batch of Cascade seedlings. They have naturally compact growth so need no training, and are smothered in small flowers arranged in a neat mound, often more than 1m (3ft) across, with a similarly impressive range of colours as Cascades. As with cushion mums, their compact habit has recently been seized upon
by pot-plant growers eager to avoid using growth retardant. However, these plants are not suitable for growing outside in a border as they are not frost hardy.
The garden-worthiness of cushion mums and the elegance of the Japanese cultivars and training methods is showing British gardeners a different side to these 'old-fashioned' plants. Perhaps now that gardeners are starting to enjoy the use of bright colours in gardens again, they can make room for these autumn beauties, which lend colour as easily to a group of banana plants or cannas as they do to a sunny windowsill.Lia Leendertz is Features Co-ordinator on The Garden
Images: Tim Sandall/Toplinc ImagingChrysanthemum Day
In celebration of the Year of the Chrysanthemum, a special day dedicated to chrysanthemums will be held at RHS Garden Wisley on August 22. See Perspectives, p655 and July, p581, for further details.
Office of Agricultural Communications
Southern Gardening
http://msucares.com/news/print/sgnews/sg01/sg011015.htmlBelgian mums rock the nursery industry
By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension CenterChrysanthemums have always been the premier fall plant, but this year a new group known as Belgian mums have gardeners everywhere talking.
These are no ordinary fall-flowering, winter-hardy chrysanthemums. Belgian mums produce an abundance of flower buds in a quantity much larger than any other mum.
Every year I try to urge gardeners to buy mums while they are still in tight bud so they get the most landscape value for their purchase. Sometimes I feel like I have failed. Most mums are hard to sell without color showing, but things are changing with the arrival of Belgian mums. These plants have so many buds that gardeners are quick to realize their superiority.
If you tried to count the buds on these plants, you most likely would need a calculator. Close examination shows that many have upwards of 600 buds ready to open. I feel certain that some I have seen have 1,000 buds.
An exceptional feature of the Belgian mum is its durability. We have all packed mums in the trunk of the car and unloaded them at home to realize we should have been more careful. The backseat is loaded with broken branches.
While other mums break branches easily, the Belgian mums can take a lot of abuse without damage. The first time a grower urged me to squeeze the whole plant tightly, I thought he was trying to make a quick sale because they would surely break. Unbelievably, the mums bounced back like a sponge after squeezing.
The Belgian mums are mounded in shape and require no pinching or staking. They come in varieties that are early, mid-season and late fall blooming that will give us gardeners an extra long season of bloom if we buy accordingly.
There are more than 20 selections of Belgian mums grown in the United States, and their names are a little tricky. Very early flowering
varieties are Temptress and Urano. For early season, look for Camina, Cesaro, Jambo, Molfetta, Novare, Padre, Savona, Siam and Terano.
Mid-season varieties are Celino, Frimo, Mistretta and Prato. If you're shopping now, look for late season varieties like Carpino, Dark Veria, Sapiro and Tripoli.
Don't let the names throw you -- these are great new mums that will probably change the face of our industry for years to come. Your garden center may still have some of the late season varieties for sale. If not, at least you will know what to look for next year.
After the mums succumb to freezing weather, trim the foliage back to just above the ground and give them a good layer of mulch. It is not uncommon to have a good spring bloom of mums. After this bloom, cut them back again to get ready for fall.
It is an exciting time to be a gardener. New varieties like the Belgian mums and others pouring in from around the world makes you want to keep your eyes open at the garden center.
Released: Oct. 15, 2001
Contact: Norman Winter (601) 857-2284Editor's Note: Ideal publication dates of Southern Gardening columns are within one month of their release. Editors should examine older columns carefully for any information that could be time sensitive.
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Red Belgian mums
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Last Modified: Thursday, 14-Aug-03 13:47:18
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