Pruning Chrysanthemums For Fullness and Future Flowers

Once your Chrysanthemums have become established and received their application of fertilizer, the young plants should rapidly produce lush green growth. At this point, start training the plants. When each plant has reached a height of about a foot, cut it back heavily, so it is about 6 inches high. This seems like drastic treatment, but the final results will be rewarding. The cut-off tops may be rooted as additional cuttings and can be expected to bloom if they are set out before July 1.

The base of the plant will soon produce new shoots in the angles of the remaining leaves, especially if the plants were making vigorous growth at the time of pruning. If this remaining stem becomes very hard and woody before topping, only one or two of the uppermost buds will break into shoots. This results in sparse, spindling plants with brittle branches that are easily broken off.

Let us assume, however, that four to six buds have started into shoots, as they should when well grown. Allow these shoots to attain a height of a foot or slightly more and then cut these back until only about 6 inches of the lower portion remains. Just as the main stem forced outside shoots, these branches will produce several sturdy ones. Another dressing of fertilizer may be applied shortly after this second pruning.

If the plants were set out early and are making good growth, the second set of side shoots will attain sufficient length before forming flower buds. They, in turn, may be cut back to about 6 inches in length. Each of these shoots will also produce several strong branches. Thus the plants will have been cut back two or even three times by early August, at which time cutting back should cease, since flower bud formation takes place then. Pruning up to this time will not delay flowering.

This much cutting back will give dense bushes often 2 feet across, laden with shoots 14 to 18 inches in length with heavy bloom at their tips. These stems are well suited for cutting or decorative use, as well as a grand display of bloom in the garden.

In some varieties additional shoots will spring from the ground around the base of the main stem, especially under good conditions. The earliest may need to be cut back at least once, as the rest of the plant has been.

Of course you may omit this topping and secure a taller plant of more upright growth which usually must be tied to a stake to prevent it from falling over. These taller plants should be more liberally fertilized throughout the summer. A few of the earliest flowering varieties should not be heavily fertilized, nor do they require such cutting back. For example, the low-growing border types.

Keep them Growing

To do their best, chrysanthemums should be kept in vigorous growth throughout the summer by fertilization. It is best if the fertilizer is given in small doses at several successive periods during the summer, ceasing application about the time flower buds are the size of small shot. If continued much after this, the colors will be less brilliant, the petals much more likely to suffer from rain and frost damage and the branches floppy.

A good moisture supply should be available at all times, and as usual, a few good soakings are much better than more frequent light sprinklings. A mulch of straw, lawn clippings, sawdust or peatmoss around the plants will aid greatly in maintaining a satisfactory moisture supply and as a fertilizer regulator. But such mulches should never be kept soaking wet or allowed to become heavy or soggy. Lack of moisture, as well as excess moisture, is likely to result in blackening or loss of the lower leaves. It is always best to apply water to the soil beneath the plants, over the mulch if one is used, than to spray the foliage. If the foliage remains wet it will be more subject to disease, which will cause it to turn yellow or completely black.

by E Kraus

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