A Gentle Plea for the Noble Chrysanthemum
British Flowers Rock!
A Gentle Plea for the Noble Chrysanthemum
It’s autumn – that dark soggy time between the summer holidays and Christmas. The flowers of summer are gone, the weather is wet & dreary. The trees are doing their best to cheer us up with their glorious show of autumn colour, but mostly it’s dull & grey.
So what to do if you want to choose British grown flowers rather than imported ones? Well flower farmers have rediscovered a well kept secret – the chrysanthemum. Long known in the world of show growers and old-boy allotmenteers; for generations gardeners have celebrated the special autumn floral fireworks that chrysanthemums provide. They are the last gasp of summer as winter approaches – now available in a bunch for your kitchen table from a grower near you!
Chryanths have been around for a long time and have a distinguished history, the Chinese first cultivated them as a herb in the 15th century BC and by the 8th century they had been introduced to Japan had where they were adopted as the symbol of the Emperor. They have been used for culinary, medicinal and insecticidal purposes over the centuries. For me the smell of chrysanthemums, along with bonfires, instantly takes me back to playing outside on dark autumn afternoons in childhood. So it’s sad to find that these days you are more likely to see them in a bunch of garish, garage-forecourt or supermarket flowers, somehow reduced to a throwaway commodity; a last-minute gesture, rather than the celebrated floral extravaganza they really are. A victim of their own success they are rightly popular for their long vase life – they can last for weeks and have become just a bit …. boring?
However – and there had to be a ‘however’ didn’t there?! The varieties now being grown by flower farmers are a completely different animal. Championed by Sarah Raven, made available by specialist nurseries, their jewel like colours and fabulous shapes and forms stretch the last moments of summer all the way to Christmas. You can find everything from small pompoms to spiky spider shapes – one of my favourites is “Red Tarantula”. They start flowering at the end of the summer and with a bit of protection from the worst of the autumn weather you could have them decorating your Christmas dinner table. The colours range from elegant pale pinks and salmons to through bronzes and golds to amethysts and rubies.
They’re not hugely difficult to grow, easy to source as rooted cuttings and are perennial, so come back year after year. So why not treat your garden to a couple of plants – or treat your self to a bunch from your local grower. You’ll be hooked.
Vanessa Swetman
www.kitchengardenflowersandproduce.org.uk
First published in the Peak Advertiser November 2023