Chrysanthemum

“ Is not a bunch of chrysanthemums a sort of take-it-or-leave-it declaration, boldly and showily made, an offer without discrimination, a tender without romance? A young man will catch the whole family with this flaming message, but where is that sentiment that once set the maiden heart in a flutter? Will she press a chrysanthemum, and keep it till the faint perfume reminds her of the sweetest moment of her life? ”

“ In November of this year, there appeared, at the Horticultural Hall in New York, a wonderful floral stranger from China—the chrysanthemum. Thousands of people paid to go and see these constellations of beauty. It was a new plant to us then, and we went mad about it in true American fashion. To walk among these flowers was like crossing a corner of heaven. It became a mania of the times, almost like the tulip mania of Holland in the 17th century. People who had voted that the Chinese must go, voted that the Chinese chrysanthemum could stay. ”

“ The chrysanthemum has been cultivated in China for four thousand years and its fame was sung by the poet and scholar, To En Mei, who prized it above all else under heaven and assigned it the rank of paragon.
When all Nature is preparing for the long sleep of winter and the red, brown and golden forest leaves are dropping, spiritless, to the ground, the [pg 72] chrysanthemum comes forth from the earth in fresh and radiant colors. It gladdens the heart in the sad season of autumn. Its clustered petals, all united and never scattering, typify the family, the state, and the Empire. ”

“ Care must be taken to set the bows in front up well, and, if a soft material, a long bit of wire will form a support.
The flower of the day is the white chrysanthemum, and one sees it everywhere—on dinner tables, as button holes, and forming bouquets. ”

“ It goes along with all the conceits and fantastic unrest of the decorative art. Indeed, but for the discovery of the capacities of the chrysanthemum, modern life would have experienced a fatal hitch in its development. It helps out our age of plush with a flame of color. There is nothing shamefaced or retiring about it, and it already takes all provinces for its own. One would be only half-married—civilly, and not fashionably—without a chrysanthemum wedding ”

“ The chrysanthemum is usually regarded as a hardy border flower which may be left to itself to grow as a weed, or at least to have no more aid than an ugly stake to which it is roughly tied to save it from being blown into rags by the gales of autumn. But when carefully cultivated for the decoration of the conservatory it is one of the finest plants in the English garden, and may be employed in a variety of ways at a time when flowers are exceedingly scarce. ”

“ The chrysanthemum, while not the national flower, is the imperial favorite and best beloved bloom of the people, therefore it is the proper one for decoration, united with potted plants, palms, vines, etc. ”

“ The chrysanthemum is the spoiled and petted darling of the floral world. She is as vain as any society beauty, and quite as much time is spent on her toilet and personal appearance. Though beautiful by nature, she scorns to show herself to her circle of admirers until the arts of the hairdresser and masseur have enhanced her loveliness.
Toilet goes a long way in this world, and many a social star owes half her triumphs to it. Particularly is this true of My Lady Chrysanthemum; for she well repays for any trouble that may be spent upon her. ”

“ Cultivation has its limits. After we have produced it, we find that the biggest rose even is not the most precious; and lovely as woman is, we instinctively in our admiration put a limit to her size. There being, then, certain laws that ultimately fetch us all up standing, so to speak, it does seem probable that the chrysanthemum rage will end in a gorgeous sunset of its splendor; that fashion will tire of it, and that the rose, with its secret heart of love; the rose, with its exquisite form; the rose, with its capacity of shyly and reluctantly unfolding its beauty ”

“ You cannot paint the lily with any prospect of success, but the number of curls and frills and furbelows you may add to the dainty chrysanthemum bloom, and still leave room for the touch of a titivating hand, is endless.
There are tricks in every trade, and the same is true of most hobbies. Chrysanthemum showing and growing form no exception to the rule. You may have mastered the many little secrets of growing these glorious flowers to the best advantage, and yet be as far from inclusion in the coveted show prize list as though you were but a mere tyro. ”

“ In the seventeenth century a Chrysanthemum was grown in Dantsic.——Three Chrysanthemums (the Corn Marigold, the Ox-eyed Daisy, and the Fever-few) are natives of England, but as they bloom in summer when flowers are plentiful, and not in November, as our garden varieties do, it has not been so well worth while to bestow care in raising and improving them. The Autumn Chrysanthemums are descended from either the Chinese or the Indian varieties, the former of which have white flowers and the latter yellow. ”

“ Small plants of the Chrysanthemum obtained from the florist in the spring will, with proper care, make fine blooming plants by fall. Plant out, when all danger of frost is past, in a sunny bed composed of rather sandy loam and muck well manured and made deep and mellow. Set the plants from a foot to eighteen inches apart each way and cultivate at least once a week during the summer. They should never suffer for water, as if once allowed to dry out they never fully recover. ”

“ How art may assist nature is admirably shown in the accompanying photographs illustrating My Lady Chrysanthemum in her natural state, and the same bloom dressed and cupped for show purposes. It will probably never have occurred to the majority of people that such dressing is a most important matter in preparing blossoms for exhibition, and it will be news to them that the preparation of this toilet is a matter requiring the greatest skill, and is only to be undertaken with complete success by the horticulturist who has made a special study of chrysanthemum growing and showing. ”

“ A variety of the Chrysanthemum indicum with orange-coloured flowers has been lately procured from China by Lady Hume. These faintly agree in scent, as they do in colour, with the Wall-flower, Cheiranthus Cheiri; whereas the common purple variety of the same Chrysanthemum has a totally different and much stronger odour.
There is, of course, still more analogy between the smell of plants in general and their impression on the palate, insomuch that we are frequently unable to discriminate between the two. The taste is commonly more permanent than the smell, but now and then less so. ”

“ The chrysanthemum, gorgeous in itself and lavishly employed, makes a superb decoration, and if, for a background, the walls, doors, windows, etc., are draped in Japanese tapestry goods, with friezes of the flowers, the result will prove singularly striking and beautiful. ”

“ And however strong the plants or propitious the season, eleven-pots are the largest allowable for chrysanthemums. If you put them into larger pots you may whistle for flowers.
The chrysanthemum is grown in a variety of forms according to the fancy of the cultivator. The tall untrained bushes suitable for the conservatory are the easiest to manage; and any one who has the least idea of gardening operations can stake and train them, for all they need is sufficient support to enable them to carry their flowers. ”

“ Young love that used to express its timid desire with the violet, or, in its ardor, with the carnation, now seeks to bring its emotions to light by the help of the chrysanthemum. And it can express every shade of feeling, from the rich yellow of prosperous wooing to the brick-colored weariness of life that is hardly distinguishable from the liver complaint. ”

“ That certainly is not the case. I always wind up my watch, and I never watered the flower-pot. Of course, if I had been living in Gilray's rooms with the thing always before my eyes I might have done so. I proposed to take it into my chambers at the time, but he would not hear of that. Why? How Gilray came by this chrysanthemum I do not inquire, but whether, in the circumstances, he should not have made a clean breast of it to me is another matter. Undoubtedly it was an unusual thing to put a man to the trouble of watering a chrysanthemum daily without giving him its history. ”

“ They have been improved of late years, and they are very satisfactory plants of easy culture. The plants should be renewed from seed every year or two.
In variety of form and color, and in size of bloom, the florists’ chrysanthemum is one of the most wonderful of plants. It is a late autumn flower, and it needs little artificial heat to bring it to perfection. The great blooms of the exhibitions are produced by growing only one flower to a plant and by feeding the plant heavily. It is hardly possible for the amateur to grow such specimen flowers as the professional florist or gardener does ”

“ What a science this is may be more readily realised by a glance at our photograph of a set of instruments used for the purpose. These are specially made, and each has a special part to play in dressing the perfect specimen bloom.
A "RAGGED AND UNKEMPT CHRYSANTHEMUM"—WHICH BECAME NEAT AND CHARMING UNDER CAREFUL TREATMENT.
There are twenty-four varieties of chrysanthemums, but two in particular, the reflex and the incurved, are the subjects of artificial treatment. The accompanying series of photographs show the making of an incurved bloom's toilet from first to last. ”

“ The chrysanthemum will grow in any good garden soil, but when grown in pots should have a rich and substantial loamy compost and at every stage the pots must be well drained, for if the soil becomes pasty, the plants will make no progress. When it is intended to grow great exhibition specimens, cuttings must be started in November, but nice plants for the conservatory may be obtained from cuttings started in February, March, or April. ”

“ There is certainly no other country where flowers are so universally loved. The humblest cottager will place in the tokonoma (an alcove with slightly raised daïs) of his living room an iris, a spray of plum-blossom, or a liliputian tree. The noble will devote years of patient cultivation to the production of a chrysanthemum more variegated in colour and shape than those of his neighbour. Wistaria, lotus, convolvulus, and azalea vie with the cherry-blossom in attracting sightseers, who come in [138] crowds to feast their eyes on garden or pond. ”

“ I will just take two examples to show how obvious methods of leading taste are not only overlooked, but even perverted; for it is not only in the individual blooms that much of the show-teaching is unworthy, but also in the training of the plants; so that a plant that by nature has some beauty of form, is not encouraged or even allowed to develop that beauty, but is trained into some shape that is not only foreign to its own nature, but is absolutely ugly and ungraceful, and entirely stupid. The natural habit of the Chrysanthemum is to grow in the form of several upright stems. ”

“ Dr. Jemma, chevalier of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a handsome, cheerful old man, brought a bouquet of white chrysanthemums as an offering to Juliana.
"Oh! my favorite flowers!" said Juliana. "Thank you."
She took the bouquet, gazed on it for a long time, buried her tapering fingers in it; and there was a sad analogy between her pallor and that of the autumn flowers. They were chrysanthemums as large as full-blown roses, tufted, heavy; they had the color of a sickly, bloodless, almost lifeless skin, the livid whiteness noticeable on the cheeks of beggars benumbed by cold. ”

“ There is the spiky little chrysanthemum, the tiger's moustache, and huge maroon blossoms fading off into delicate cream in the centre, and many other uncommon varieties, each in its appropriate pot, spacious, four-square, and creamy, apparently just made to be painted, and each placed at exactly the right elevation by means of its light wooden stand, sometimes raising the pot an inch or two, sometimes about eight feet, and always so slanted, that the flowers are tilted down towards the spectator, thus showing themselves off in their entirety. ”

“ The badge of the order may be described as follows: From a centre of red enamel representing the sun issue 32 white gold-bordered rays in four sharply projecting groups, between the angles of which are four yellow conventional chrysanthemum flowers with green leaves forming a circle on which the rays rest; the whole is suspended from a larger yellow chrysanthemum. ”

“ Like the orchid grower, the chrysanthemum lover is ever seeking floral novelties. In the ordinary way it takes some years to produce and fix a new flower. Endless patience, experiment, and knowledge are necessary to success; but here, as in most branches of floriculture, there is a strong element of luck, and the raw amateur sometimes purchases a cutting which turns out to be an extraordinarily fine specimen of a new variety.
This element of uncertainty undoubtedly constitutes one of the great charms of horticulture.
[Pg 583]
"OFF TO KLONDYKE." A STORY TO BE READ TO CHILDREN.
By Geo. ”

“ How fresh the chrysanthemums look in the sun!"
The Dormouse lay happy, his eyes were so tight
He could see no chrysanthemums, yellow or white,
And all that he felt at the back of his head
Were delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red) .
And that is the reason (Aunt Emily said)
If a Dormouse gets in a chrysanthemum bed,
You will find (so Aunt Emily says) that he lies
Fast asleep on his front with his paws to his eyes. ”