If you want to be happy, grow chrysanthemums. So they say in the Land of the Rising Sun. Beautiful and sad autumn flowers can also please at other times of the year, if you try to grow chrysanthemums in a pot. Caring for them is an art worthy of a whole study.
Once the Greeks called this flower “golden-flowered” (“χρῡσανθής”). Probably, it was a long time ago, because the plant today has about one and a half hundred species and up to two thousand varieties of all conceivable and unimaginable colors. Chrysanthemum came to us from the East, China and Japan compete for the right to be called its homeland.
In both countries, this flower is considered a national treasure, special days have been established in honor of it, festivals are held. In Japan, chrysanthemum is generally considered a symbol of imperial power. The practice of presenting the highest award - the Order of Chrysanthemum - also exists in Japan.
Chrysanthemum is a perennial decorative culture of the asters family. This is a shrub with a height of 20 to 80 centimeters - depending on the variety. The flower invariably evokes associations with the autumn landscape, but you can see it at flower growers and sellers at any time of the year: we have long learned how to grow chrysanthemums in a pot.
Care for them, of course, needs a special one. First of all, it should be borne in mind that this is a flower of a short day. Receiving light for more than ten hours during the day, the plant will not bloom or will produce single flowers. And therefore, deciding to plant this spoiled
oriental princess in a pot
, one must be able to provide her with a favorable lighting regime. And the temperature regime should not be higher than 17-18 degrees for chrysanthemum in a pot.
Care behind the leaves - protection against dust, spraying - is very important. They are even more sensitive to changes in conditions than flowers. If a plant does not like something, the lower leaves begin to fade and crumble - a familiar picture for those who grow street varieties of "oak" chrysanthemums. For small-flowered varieties, it is enough to pinch the tops to get a thick bush. And if you need large flowers, they can be grown only by a single-stem method.
Watering also has its own characteristics. These flowers remain true to their whims: they can not stand either dryness or waterlogged soil or air - these are chrysanthemums! Potted care they are much more troublesome than in natural conditions. In the open air, for example, they can easily tolerate elevated temperatures, even the sun. They can more easily survive the rain that floods the roots, and then dry soil. Naturally, within reasonable limits.
Growing chrysanthemums indoors - in a room or a greenhouse - of course, differs from keeping them in an open flower garden. If only because the root system is preserved on the street, it hibernates and gives new flowers year after year, whereas in indoor conditions they are grown as annuals.
And this is from ignorance. After flowering, chrysanthemums can be pruned to the root and put away in a dark, cool place for wintering. In the spring, bring to light, start watering - and wait for a new flowering.
But what many people probably do not know about - that chrysanthemum is a medicinal plant. Not only is the very presence of these flowers in the room, admiring them, inhaling a fresh tart aroma capable of giving a full sense of happiness and peace - tea from their petals acts tonic, uplifting, has a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system, and is also recommended for colds as an anti-inflammatory and antipyretic.
And how then not to love chrysanthemums - the flowers of autumn?