Are chrysanthemums back in fashion?

Chrysanthemumsmay be following dahlias back into fashion. Forget funerals and florists, both of which may have accounted for their unpopularity and think of the rich colours of Persian carpets and winter velvets. The smell of chrysanths is too strong to ignore. Elizabeth Jennings described it as “acrid incense” and D H Lawrence wrote this exchange between mother and daughter:

“Don’t they smell beautiful!” Her mother gave a short laugh. “No,” she said, “not to me. It was chrysanthemums when I married him, and chrysanthemums when you were born, and the first time they ever brought him home drunk, he’d got brown chrysanthemums in his button-hole.”

How sad. But I’m with the daughter on this. I love the smell of our latest autumn flowers and every year I wish I had grown more. Long ago, I went to dinner at Longwood in the United States in a huge glass house for the annual chrysanthemum festival and I have never forgotten it.

Every spring I fall for a few tricky ones with spidery petals and large heads that will not survive a winter. Some get dug up to finish flowering in the greenhouse, but I increasingly think the ones to major in are the hardy types. 'Emperor of China’ is quilled pink and looks far too delicate to be in flower at the end of November, but it never fails me.

'Anastasia’ comes in dark pink and white versions and produces tiny pom poms in sprays. My new favourites are 'Bretforton Red’ and 'Ruby Mound’. These are glowing reds with double flowers and they last for ages in a vase on the kitchen table. In addition to the ones I have mentioned, Bob Brown of Cotswold Garden Flowers has a long list of desirable varieties in bronze, orange and yellow. His nursery would be a good place to shop for the start of a collection.

I used to have a scented white daisy lookalike chrysanth, but I never knew its name. It has reappeared as 'E H Wilson’. According to the website gardenchrysanthemums.org.uk, this may be the 1905 introduction of the species collected in Korea by EH Wilson which was used as the parent of the single Korean hybrids and named 'Autumn Glory’.

If you get the hardy chrysanth bug, Judy Barker, National Collection holder and researcher of the above website, is your woman. She grows around 100 varieties and her plant portraits make me want to grow almost as many as she does.

The Koreans and the similar Rubellums have large daisy flowers, with pronounced yellow centres. Oddly, I like these less than many of the double-flowered forms. I am not sure why, as I usually choose single rather than double flowers. The 'Duchess of Edinburgh’ is a good strong red and 'Mrs Jessie Cooper’ is more magenta, while 'Clara Curtis’ is peachy apricot.

All the hardy chrysanths are easy to grow. They like a sunny site and space to spread. Feed with slow-release fertiliser but don’t over feed and water in dry summers, especially when they are forming buds. This helps to prevent white rust. After flowering they may need a dry mulch in cold gardens to keep them going once they have been cut down.

Judy Barker says that the ones with dark stems tend to have some C. zawadskii genes from Russia in them, which makes them hardier. She also advises that the ones with thin tangled roots are less resistant to damp cold conditions than those with thick fleshy roots.

It is sensible to divide all plants every three years in late spring, as overcrowding can lead to disease. White rust is the worst. To avoid the need for staking, try Chelsea chopping them at the end of May, reducing their height by about a third.

Just as February has been transformed by the cult of snowdrops I wonder if hardy chrysanths may do the same for November. I certainly plan to grow more next year, in rows between vegetables, but they would also work in flower borders, provided they had the space, sun and drainage they need to flourish.