Latest Developments in Culture 
Of Chrysanthemums 
Following is an address by Geo. J. Ball at the meeting and short course of the Society 
of Iowa Florists, Ames, la., November 23, 1935. 
There are approximately 20,000 flo¬ 
rists retailing in the United States. For 
the sake of a figure, let us say their 
average sale of chrysanthemums will be 
$250. On that conservative basis the 
crop would value, to the growers, five 
million dollars! That might explain the 
increasing interest in the Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Society of America. Most encour¬ 
aging, too, is the favor that unfailingly 
greets the annual return of the chrys¬ 
anthemum. 
Back in the early so-called gay 90’s, 
I well recall an authoritative statement 
to the effect that the chrysanthemum 
craze had about spent itself, for it was 
hardly thought possible to make further 
considerable improvements in the mum. 
This was recognizing the fact that in¬ 
terest in any class of plants can only 
be maintained by improvements or vari¬ 
ations. How fortunate that we so well 
appreciate this! About that time a 
young fellow, Elmer D. Smith, evi¬ 
dently disagreed with this statement, 
for he has to his credit since those 
days the amazing accomplishment of 
having produced 615 accepted varieties! 
The dollar value of this work is not 
readily appreciated. And that unassum¬ 
ing genius, Alex Cumming, at Bristol, 
Conn., who is introducing the virility 
of Korean varieties into our stock, be¬ 
lieves the dawn of real chrysanthemum 
prosperity is just breaking. And in the 
light of his recent work with the small- 
flowered class, I believe he is right. 
It is perfectly clear that the prosperity 
of any florists’ stock depends on such 
outstanding plant breeders. Would it 
not be good business to supplement the 
satisfaction in this work with more 
substantial encouragement? 
Shading of Plants. 
By far the most valuable contribu¬ 
tion that has been made to mum cul¬ 
ture is the discovery of the fact that 
chrysanthemums can be classed as 
short-day plants, meaning that they are 
induced to flower or set buds by short¬ 
ening the days. This was worked out 
a dozen years ago and full commercial 
advantage of this discovery was not 
taken until eight or nine years later. 
Especially valuable is this early-flow¬ 
ering method to our growers because 
of heavy inroads on our markets by 
the more economically produced and 
naturally earlier-flowering California 
product. 
Briefly put, the premature shortening 
of days for mums is done by covering 
and so darkening them with black 
light-proof cloth about 6 o’clock in the 
evening and removing it about 7 o’clock 
in the morning. Though air circulation 
about the plants is shut off, no harm 
is done. Bemember that the cloth is 
on only to shorten the daylight hours; 
the cover is not needed after dark. That 
is all there is to it, except some plain, 
easily earried-out requirements, the 
fundamental one being early planting. 
In our latitude planting should be com¬ 
pleted early in May, not later than im¬ 
mediately after Mothers’ day. The 
necessity of this is due to the buds’ 
setting much earlier, after which the 
stems, of course, cannot lengthen 
greatly, not over twelve inches for the 
shorter-stemmed standards and sixteen 
to eighteen inches for the taller, with 
the pompons hardly more than half 
that. We use largely February propa¬ 
gation, but if this early stock becomes 
hardened or is overcrowded, March- 
started plants will be much better. 
More damaging to the future crop 
than many growers realize is a check 
to growth, especially of young stock. 
Late planting of stock or its not hav¬ 
ing enough growth when shading is 
started explains the short-stemmed 
flowers frequently noted about most 
markets. We might sell such stock 
under market conditions like those of 
last fall, but only long-stemmed, clean 
stock will average a profit. So, if the 
growth is not up as suggested, better 
forget the shade and give the plants 
time enough to draw up and come nor¬ 
mally. 
Suitable Varieties and Spacing. 
We have found most varieties of 
pompons suitable for this early, or Sep¬ 
tember flowering. A few are too soft 
for the occasional warm weather they 
will be exposed to. The pink Leilah 
and that old-timer, Uvalda, are vari¬ 
eties that warm weather easily turns 
brown with decay. Varieties we have 
found excellent and that we use largely 
"Enclose Your Mum With Your Seed Order" 
.. 19 .. 
