What springs into your head at the mention of chrysanthemums? A bunch of supermarket flowers perhaps, or those short, squat ‘Pot Mums’ you find at garden centres. Push such visions from your mind and think again, because chrysanths are back in fashion, particularly the hardy varieties that can stretch your garden’s performance even further than the autumn asters and give you colour right up until mid December.
‘So many gardeners tell us that they put their gardens to bed at the end of August,’ observes Andrew Ward, as we walk round the colourful garden at Norwell Nurseries in Nottinghamshire, which he runs with his wife Helen. ‘But if you have asters, you can still have flowers in October. Add hardy chrysanthemums and you get an extra three or four weeks on top of that. It makes winter much shorter.’
The couple’s interest in hardy chrysanthemums started after Helen’s mother gave them a plant from her garden called ‘Innocence’. We started collecting more and soon found we had over 100 varieties,’ says Helen. They now grow around 180 varieties in their National Collection, derived from two species: the rubellum hybrids from C. erubescens and the Korean hybrids from C. koreana.
Over the years, so much hybridisation has taken place that the original parentage is unclear. Chrysanthemums were hugely popular at the beginning of the 20th century, when gardeners and nurserymen pioneered a host of new hybrids in France, Britain and America. Nursery owner Amos Perry was known for his introduction of the rubellum types in Britain, while Americans focused on the Korean hybrids. After the Second World War, when gardens had been taken over for vegetable production, many of these chrysanthemums were lost. The ones that remained were the tender varieties grown for shows or those used for cut flowers, and the herbaceous types fell out of fashion.
It is only in the past decade or so that these herbaceous chrysanthemums have started to make a comeback. ‘They produce interesting foliage, but are usually hidden by other herbaceous plants until you start to cut things back in autumn – and then it’s their turn to shine,’ says Andrew. There are singles, doubles, semi-doubles, pompoms, spiders and anemone-centred types, in various heights and with different flowering times. ‘The pompoms are mostly shorter and more compact, with neat foliage, and are good for the front of the border and for pots,’ says Helen. ‘The spider types – like ‘Gelbe Spinne’ – are taller and may need staking.’ Some, like vibrant orange ‘Ruby Raynor’, start blooming in July and continue all autumn. Others, such as ‘Mrs Jessie Cooper’, are in tight bud until the end of October and flower right the way through into December.
The Norwell Collection includes old varieties that have stood the test of time, such as ‘E.H. Wilson’, ‘Emperor of China’, ‘Clara Curtis’ and the recently rediscovered ‘Anne, Lady Brocket’, as well as the couple’s own introductions. These include pale pink ‘Barbara Lambert’, named after Helen’s mother, and ‘Helen Ward’, a compact pompom type named for Helen herself, described in the catalogue as a ‘rain-washed red, giving an old-fashioned feel like luxurious leather’. The willowy ‘Mavis Smith’, a tall, striking plant that has vibrant pink flowers with delicate, quilled petals, is another of their introductions, and bears the name of the customer who brought them the plant from her garden.
In rainbow hues, most of these cultivars are flowering profusely at the end of October at Norwell and will carry on even if there is a sudden frost. But their hardiness comes with a proviso. ‘They are reliably hardy down to -8C, but only with excellent drainage,’ says Andrew. This may mean improving a heavy soil with grit or sharp sand, or growing them in a sand bed, which Andrew and Helen are trialling. ‘They want to be in full sun, so you need to think where the sunniest spot is in October and November.’
At Norwell, the plants are left to die back naturally in the garden over winter, with their crowns intact to give extra protection against the frost, before being cut back in early spring. In the right conditions (especially in sand), these over-wintering plants may cross-fertilise and self-seed to provide new and distinct varieties, and the plants can also be propagated by taking cuttings or division.
A far cry from the artificial-looking, chemical-laden pot plants that would not survive even a hint of frost, these elegant border plants are a valuable addition to a garden. ‘They are joyous,’ says Andrew. ‘We always like to think that we have as much colour in the garden in October as we do in June, and they are so good for late pollinators'.
Norwell Nurseries: norwellnurseries.co.uk
