Chrysanthemums have blossomed in the garden,
How beautiful they are, no doubt about it.
I'll pick a huge bouquet
And I will give it to you on your birthday,Look how good they are,
Yellow, white, red,
I wish you from the bottom of my heart,
Much happiness and bright joy!
I have one white chrysanthemum growing at my dacha.
Vera, a neighbor at the dacha who, unfortunately, passed away too early, gave it to me. The chrysanthemum blooms in late August – early September.
It blooms until the first hard frosts; light frosts of -2-3 degrees Celsius are not harmful. Its flowers are initially white, later turning pinkish-lilac. The flowers are double but not large, about four to five centimeters across. The bush reaches one meter in height and always blooms profusely.
Every fall, as soon as the nighttime temperatures drop slightly below freezing, I trim the branches, dig up the bush, and place it in the cellar. In the spring, I take it out and plant it outdoors. This is the only way to preserve chrysanthemums in our region.
For a long time, I had two chrysanthemums growing in my apartment, pink and yellow.
When we bought the dacha, I planted them in the flower bed, and they bloomed beautifully all September. In the fall, I covered the bush with compost and covered it with branches to retain snow, thinking they would survive the winter just fine. But in the spring, they didn't sprout; they died.
Last fall, at my dacha, I saw a woman carrying a huge bouquet of multicolored chrysanthemums. And I really wanted to have a variety of chrysanthemums, too.
At the end of September I had a birthday and I was given bouquets of chrysanthemums.
After cutting off a few branches, I decided to root them by placing them in a glass of water. Soon, some dried up, and three developed weak roots. When more roots appeared, I transplanted the cuttings into a pot. But after a while, all the branches dried up. My experiment had failed.
Chrysanthemums from seeds
In the spring, I decided to propagate chrysanthemums from seeds. I bought seeds called "Stars of the Galaxy"—a mix of five colors.
The package says to sow the seeds from February 1st to March 10th. So, on February 1st, I filled a small container with soil, watered it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, placed the seeds in it, and lightly covered them with soil. I moistened the soil and covered my crops with a transparent lid.
I placed the box on the table, close to the window. The seeds took up half the box, so I sowed the other half with petunias—10 seeds. To my surprise, the chrysanthemum seeds began to sprout on the fourth day after sowing.
The chrysanthemum sprouted well, but the seedlings grew very slowly. This is what they looked like on March 10th. Only two true leaves.
Later I planted it more freely.
I planted them in the flowerbed at the end of May. By mid-July, my chrysanthemums looked like this: they had strengthened, but were growing very slowly.
I thought they wouldn't bloom this season, but at the beginning of August, small buds appeared on some bushes.
At the end of August the first flowers began to bloom.
I expected the flowers to be semi-double and large. The package stated that the flower was 7 cm, and the plant height was 70 cm. What I got were low bushes with small daisy-like flowers, 3-4 cm, in white and light yellow.
This is the first bloom; perhaps the bushes haven't gained enough strength for larger flowers. Later, burgundy buds appeared on other bushes.
The flowers are semi-double, larger than the white and yellowish ones, almost like my white chrysanthemum.
Some of the seedlings planted in the spring, very short, didn't have time to grow and didn't bloom this fall. I still like my new chrysanthemums, although I expected more from them—large flowers, bright colors.
In a few days, I'll dig them up and put them in the cellar for storage. And in the spring, I'll plant them around a tall chrysanthemum. I can already imagine how beautiful it will be!