Hardy Chrysanthemums as Practical Flowers 



By Francis H. Bergen, j 



New 



ASIDE from the striking beauty 

 of the colors of the single Chry- 

 santhemums, which appeal to 

 me so strongly, I enjoy the further 

 fun of the natural hybridization that takes 

 place so much more readily among them 

 than among the doubles through the large 

 bee-like flies that gather on the flowers. 

 By saving the seedlings coming up in the 

 spring, I give myself a series of pleasant 

 surprises the following fall in the bloom of 

 colors or shades that I never had before. 

 Anyone else could do just the same for I 

 have no greenhouse. 



My special favorite, however, is the one 

 known as Mrs. Francis H. Bergen which I 

 have grown for a number of years. It is 

 not one of my own seedlings, however, and 

 has a personal interest apart from its merits 

 as a double white of very hardy constitution. 

 An account of this variety may stimulate 

 the interest of other amateurs to look about 

 them and see what may be promising in 

 the stocks of hardy plants among their 

 friends. 



I began growing hardy Chrysanthemums 

 twenty or more years ago on Staten Island 

 where I then lived. Hardy pompons I 

 had been brought up with from boyhood 

 days in my father's garden on Long 

 Island. Shortly after my 

 removal to Staten Island, 

 I saw in the garden of an 

 English gentleman living 

 there a small bed of ivory 

 whites that were new to 

 me, and which I did not 

 at that time know were 

 hardy — looking too large 

 for an outdoor variety, 

 but somewhat smaller than 

 if grown under glass. I 

 watched these plants 

 through their blooming 

 season. After the frost 

 they turned slightly pink- 

 ish on their edges. In the 

 spring a friend got me a 

 root clump, enough tostart 

 half a dozen plants which 

 bloomed freely that fall. 

 They lived through the 

 following winter on the 

 east side of my picket 

 fence with no other shelter 

 than the baseboard and 

 pickets of the fence to 

 temper the northwest 

 winds. 



The following spring I 

 started to propagate and 

 increase the stock. 

 Enough, that in ten years' time I gave away 

 to my neighbors wherever I thought they 

 would be appreciated several dozens of this 

 remarkable Chrysanthemum. When I moved 

 to my present home in New Jersey I took 

 sufficient stock with me to always have 50 

 or more plants of this variety on hand for 

 myself and sufficient extras to give friends 



so that last year they took precisely eleven 

 dozen out of my garden and some are still 

 unsatisfied whom I hope to supply another 

 season. 



My Englishman died, and his family 

 moved away from the Island before I had 

 opportunity to inquire all I should have 

 liked of the history of this variety. I was 

 assured he did not know its name, and that 

 he probably brought it from England where 

 he used to make periodic visits. As the 

 stock on his place died out with the removal 

 of the family, I became known as the suc- 

 cessor, or headquarters, for those who 

 wanted to get that particular variety, and 

 I still send some each year to friends on the 

 Island who want to replenish their beds. 



After acquiring this hardy double white, 

 I experimented with other double Chrysan- 

 themums until I evolved a stock that with- 

 stands our winters if planted on the east 

 or south side of a house or fence (to act as 

 a windbreak only) without any other pro- 

 tection whatever, though they come through 

 the winter better if in the fall you cut down 

 the old stalks and place them upon the 

 plants to prevent sun scald to the young 

 shoots in the early spring. I have now 

 four exceedingly good double varieties: my 

 ivory white, a bronze red, a deep yellow, 



The single- flowered hardy Chrysanthemums are exceptionally valuable, giving an abundance of bloom in a 

 variety of colors in the late fall. The white flower shown is Mrs. Francis H. Bergen 



and a dark pink, with others in train- 

 ing. 



The hardy Chrysanthemums grow from 

 4-2 to 5^ feet high and are so easy to culti- 

 vate that if one but takes the trouble to 

 stake them, I do not understand why every 

 garden lover should not always have a 

 couple of hundred plants of various shades 



117 



to close our flowering season in a blaze of 

 glory, for they continue into a time when 

 everything else is gone prolonging the 

 blooming period in the latitude of New York 

 for about a month — almost up to the first 

 of December. Each Thanksgiving Day 

 I always manage to have some on my table 

 picked from these out-of-door plants, and 

 no matter if they have been frostbitten 

 submerging flower and stalk in a tub of cold 

 water for two or three hours before placing 

 in a vase will bring them around as a very 

 presentable decoration. 



Of all my garden pets, I consider the 

 hardy Chrysanthemums the least trouble- 

 some and they are the surest and biggest 

 dividend payers in the profusion of glorious 

 bloom they invariably return. 



Of recent years there have been quite a 

 number of named varieties of the large 

 flowered type of hardy Chrysanthemums 

 introduced by raisers, both in this country 

 and in Europe. They seem to combine 

 the good qualities of both the large flowered 

 florists' type and the old-fashioned button 

 pompon, the hardiness of which no one has 

 ever doubted. An article published in 

 The Garden Magazine for March, 1Q13, 

 discusses this new large-flowered race in 

 detail, and interested readers will there 

 find a record of some of the 

 more important named 

 varieties. 



Of recent years, too, 

 certain seedsmen have 

 offered seeds of certain 

 varieties in mixture, which 

 easily can be had by any 

 one, although it is better 

 perhaps if the seeds be 

 sown in a frame in the 

 spring and the seedlings 

 transplanted into the 

 place where they are to 

 flower. This particular 

 strain of seed has been 

 selected with regard to 

 light colors and especially 

 of what may be called 

 pastel shades. Under or- 

 dinary conditions a goodly 

 proportion of these plants 

 will prove to be perfectly 

 hardy, coming through 

 succeeding winters safely 

 and increasing in size. 



The propagation of a 

 desired variety is simplic- 

 ity itself — either by root 

 divisions of the old stock 

 plant in spring, or by soft 

 wood cuttings taken from 

 the new shoots as they begin to develop. 

 Propagation can be carried on in a cold- 

 frame from the beginning of growth until 

 well on into early summer. 



As decorative cut flowers the hardy 

 Chrysanthemums lend themselves to great 

 diversity of purpose, as the different colors 

 may be blended and mixed with impunity. 



