SEPTEMBER Tips

 

 

 

CULTURAL TIPS FOR LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS

 

The first of the Early shows are now being held. Make sure you are in good time to enter your cultivars that you plan to enter in each class. 

Try to cut your blooms 24 to 36 hours ahead of the show with stems 24ins in length, remove lower unwanted leaves , crushing the bottom few inches of the stem with a hammer and place them immediately in about 12ins of water, there are a few formulas for keeping your blooms fresh. I use Argylene in tap water as soon as possible after cutting. Leave Blooms in the solution for about 1 hour. The foliage of your blooms can be made more attractive by the use of a leaf shine or cleaning your leaves with oil such as Bio Leaf Shine. This maybe a deciding factor in close competition.

 

Buds of Late flowering incurves, reflexes and intermediates will be swelling, and those of singles will be of a less advanced stage of development, look out for earwigs in the top of your canes, a squirt of paraffin into the cane will make them come out.

By the middle of the month you should be clearing and cleaning your greenhouse out to receive your Late Flowering Chrysanthemums.