6 hints for growing chrysanthemums

Anyone with fertile, well-drained soil and full sun can grow these beautiful perennial chrysanthemums, which usually wait until fall to cover themselves with long-lasting flowers.

People in Asia have cultivated chrysanthemums for more than 2,000 years.

• Colours range from whites and yellows to pinks and maroons.
• Most gardeners like to see bushy plants with hundreds of blossoms, but if you want only a few huge flowers, you can grow special large-flowered varieties and clip off most of the buds.

When shopping for chrysanthemums, choose varieties that bloom when you want them to.

• In northern areas, choose early-blooming cultivars. In warmer climates where fall comes later, choose late-blooming varieties to carry plenty of colour well into fall.

Pinching is essential if you want bushy, heavy-blooming plants. Pinch out the growing tips of garden chrysanthemums every three weeks from Easter to early July.

Chrysanthemums are a cinch to propagate from stem-tip cuttings.

• When you pinch back new shoots in late spring, remove the lowest leaves and set them to root in damp potting soil.
• They will be ready to transplant to new areas of your garden in only three weeks.

• Train button chrysanthemums or other small-flowered chrysanthemums to cascade over the sides of their pots by tying them to bamboo canes that are slanted progressively downward as the plants grow.
• In September, when the plants are ready to flower, remove the canes and let the plants hang down on their own.

Shallow-rooted chrysanthemums need extra winter protection to prevent heaving.

• After the first freeze, cut the stems back to ground level and mulch with about eight or 10 centimetres of hay, straw or shredded bark. This helps plants overwinter in temperatures as low as –23°C and escape the frost heaving caused by alternate freezing and thawing of the soil.
• In mild winter areas, do the opposite. Let chrysanthemums retain their dead foliage through winter, which will protect the shallow roots from ice and cold winter winds.

The large-flowered chrysanthemum you received as a gift may not be hardy enough to grow as a perennial, but you can try cutting it back in winter and storing it in a cool garage where temperatures stay above freezing.

• In spring, set it in the sun, add water and repot any green shoots that appear.