Growing chrysanthemums for cut flowers on my micro flower farm

Chrysanthemums are the absolute queens of late April and May blooms in temperate Australia, as the dahlias begin to slow and zinnias start to look ratty, the Chrysanthemums put on one heck of a show and will totally blow you away with their beauty.

Seatons Jadore with Helen Castle chrysanthemums

The incredible blooms come on thick and fast, some are early like Seatons Jadore which actually bloom along side the dahlias, think creamy Cafe au Lait dahlias with matching Seastons Jadore, they make the ultimate dream team. But there a so many more later ones that will be the pride of place in your farm and garden for mothers day blooms, and even some that bloom after mothers day to extend your flowering season.

Seatons Jadore

They are actually pretty hardy plants, planting out your small plants in Oct/November in the temperate climate of Australia, planting time varies across Australia, but here it is late spring, before it gets too hot so the plants can settle in. They don’t need as much water over the season as other flower crops, however water them regularly while they are getting established and if it is very hot.

Chrysanthemums will sort of just plod along doing not much but growing for most of the season, and you can easily just forget about them while they do their thing, however they thrive with just a little bit of love at the right time. During the growing season you will need to pinch your plants to create branches, different cultivars are pinched at different times, pinching the main stem is also called stopping the plant. Each cultivar has a long day leaf count of its own, once they reach their long day leaf count they will flower, some cultivars make as few as 24 leaves before flowering others can be 42, the ones with the big leaf count need stopping earlier to have enough time to produce all the leaves needed before flowering time. When you stop (pinch) your plants they will branch creating more stems, this way you get many more blooms and ultimately more money from each plant, as each stem will form its own buds. The amount of daylight hours also influences when your plants will begin to flower, the shorter autumn days usually trigger your plants to begin flowering, an 8hr day and 16hr night will result in blooms. They are also prone to fungal issues, keep and eye on you plants and spray if necessary before the fungal issues spread.

Chrysanthemum supports

It is very important you have good strong supports with chrysanthemums, it is better to put in supports well before they need it, don’t hold off thinking you will do it later, trust me you will be so busy with summer and autumn crops like dahlias you may forget. Put in good strong supports in when you plant your chrysanthemums, I use reo mesh with star pickets, they need something strong, because when in full bloom they are very heavy, netting may not hold up once the flowers appear. Remember it is far easier to add supports early than regret not doing it in time, and trying to add them too late, you will end up breaking stems or if you never add supports and the flowers flop onto the ground, your flowers could be ruined just as you are ready to harvest them.

Mothers days blooms

When almost everything else in the flower farm is finished flowering for the season and the cold weather settles in, the chrysanthemums are at their very best. Mothers day is quite late in our growing season here in Victoria Australia being in May, so chrysanthemums are a must grow for cut flowers for mothers day.

Taking cuttings of your chrysanthemum plants is the way to produce new plants of that cultivar, they do not produce true to seed, when new growth emerges in spring simply snip them off, pop them into your chosen growing medium, and place in a warmish location, I use my shaded polytunnels. Make sure you remember to tag you chrysanthemums, I use white plastic garden tags and grey lead or my trusty artline garden marker which won’t fade, because other than some having slightly different leaf shape it can be hard to remember which is which while they are just small cuttings.

Soon enough they will form roots and you can pot them up into their own individual pot ready to plant out in late spring. I highly recommend you joint your local chrysanthemum society as they are full of incredibly knowledgeable people who have been growing chrysanthemums far far longer than me, and have so much knowledge to share, and in comparison to those growers I am definitely still learning, so this is just a quick run down of the way I grow mine, and may not be how everyone grows their Chrysanthemums, trailing growing the plants yourself is a great way to learn.

Happy Growing, Sam.