In 1822, J. C. Loudon, the formidable one-armed horticultural editor and writer, said that Joseph Sabine, secretary of the Horticultural Society of London (subsequently the Royal Horticultural Society), knew of fourteen types of chrysanthemum. Loudon also commented that there were supposed to be more than fifty types of chrysanthemum in China. By 1826, Sabine could point to forty-eight varieties of this plant in the society’s grounds. In that year Louis Noisette, noted for his roses, took a few of Sabine’s varieties back to France. Years later, Sabine insisted on sending Robert Fortune to China to bring back even more chrysanthemums.
Sabine’s list of chrysanthemums at the Horticultural Society of London in 1822 included these varieties:
Buff Flowered
Golden Yellow
Pink Flowered
Quilled Flamed Yellow
Quilled White
Sulphur Yellow
Tasselled White
Changeable White
Large Lilac
Quilled Pink
Quilled Yellow
Spanish Brown
Superb White
The Purple
Until Robert Fortune brought the Chusan Daisy, C. rubellum, back from China in 1846, these C. indicum and C. morifolium varieties were the only types of chrysanthemum in the British Isles. They formed the backbone of all breeding efforts. You will look in vain for C. rubellum. It is now Chrysanthemum zawadskii subsp. latilobum (Maxim.) Kitag.
Fortune’s introduction became very popular, and led to considerably increased interest in the flower. The diminutive daisy-like plant was the forerunner of many new cultivars. Another great advantage of the Chusan Daisies was that they flowered much earlier in the year, enabling them to be grown outdoors.
It was still possible to find some of the British varieties from the early and mid-nineteenth century in the twentieth century. Genders listed at least three pompons which appeared in John Forbes’s catalogue in 1960: ‘Model of Perfection’, ‘Bob’, and ‘Mlle. Marthe’. Forbes had a nursery in Hawick, Scotland. (See chapter in this book on the penstemon.) Robert Fortune embellished his already stellar reputation for finding magnificent plants by collecting Japanese varieties and taking them back to England in 1862. They were quite unlike the previous specimens. Some were shaped like a camellia, and there was a wider range of colors. According to J. Lochot, himself a chrysanthemum breeder, Fortune’s introduction of seven Japanese species in 1862 invigorated the field; everyone was excited by the large blossoms with long, narrow, and fantastical petals.
Putting all these things together, nurserymen were able to establish a successful commercial cut flower trade in chrysanthemums.
Wealthy men of leisure as well as nurserymen devoted their lives to growing and breeding chrysanthemums. They formed societies of like-minded people, held competitions, and moved the flower in exciting new directions. The societies created increasingly complicated and strict rules to govern the exhibitions, constantly tightening the challenge. Rigid rules are a feature of English floral competitions and shows, sometimes stultifying genuine advances and necessary change. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) was particularly important in promoting these improvements. Members who disagreed and amateurs were the ones who restricted new advances. This conservative attitude was a feature of the old workingmen “florists,” mentioned below.
The RHS established a Floral Committee in 1859 to report on all flowers or flowering plants being submitted for consideration. Looking at the members of this committee, one is struck by the number of active nurserymen, some of them chrysanthemum breeders, who served on the committee. Although the society was an elite social organization, the fact that its members decided to include these tradesmen was a sign of how seriously they took horticulture. The leaders were able to transcend their class consciousness and recognize true talent and contributions when they saw them. As a complete non sequitur, it is almost certain their wives did not approve. Well-born women were constantly aware of class distinctions.
Florists and the Chrysanthemum
For almost three hundred years, working-class men in the British Isles found sources of pride and dignity in growing and breeding a number of small plants like auriculas, pinks, carnations, primulas, tulips, and ranunculus, which lent themselves to containers. This activity started when the Huguenots (French Protestants) fled from Paris after the infamous Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572. The refugees took their cherished plants with them, and the idea of plant breeding spread. These men were very poor, without estates or property, but they still enjoyed the excitement of watching plants grow and selecting new varieties. They also enjoyed competing for prizes, and, perhaps even more, the respect that winning brought them. After some delay, the chrysanthemum was also taken up by these “florists,” as they were called.
Florists tended to be small artisans such as skilled cotton weavers in Lancashire and the silk weavers of Paisley. They were able to tend their looms and keep an eye on their flowers at the same time. If it began to rain, they could take the cherished auricula with its delicate “farina” inside the house.
Once the crucially important textile industry was consolidated into large factories in the early nineteenth century, this convenient state of affairs was no longer feasible. Proudly independent weavers became cogs in a gigantic machine. A factory hand can only take care of plants in his free time. Florists and their societies gradually disappeared over the nineteenth century.
Florists adopted the ‘Gold Bordered Red’ variety of chrysanthemum in about 1830. The color, gold-tipped red petals and an undersurface striped with gold, and form both suited their slightly odd attitudes toward beauty. Until then they had been indifferent to the flower’s charms. A flower all in one color was not challenging. The florist wanted two or more colors to stimulate his fancy. As A. H. Haworth wrote in J. C. Loudon’s Gardener’s Magazine in April 1833, “Chinese chrysanthemums have not hitherto ranked with the true flowers of the florists because, however well-formed, in many of the varieties, they are all, save the Gold-bordered Red, of self or uniform colours.” A flower with gold-tipped red petals and an undersurface striped with gold did catch their eye. This feature allowed the grower to come up with stripes, flakes, and picotees and generally follow his whims.
Classification
Mr. Haworth also tried his hand at a classification in the same article. He listed seven classes: Ranunculus-flowered, Incurved Ranunculus-flowered, China Aster-flowered, Marigold-flowered, Tassel-flowered, and Half Double Tassel-flowered. It was a start.
By 1880, a more modern grouping had emerged in England: Section I, incurved exhibition varieties; Section II, very large-flowering varieties; Section III, anemone-flowered; Section IV, Japanese; Section V, anemone-flowered pompons; Section VI, pompons; and Section VII, early flowering (outdoors).
Chrysanthemum cultivars: collage assembled by Yves Desjardins, science editor, Chronica Horticulturae
List of cultivars:
National Chrysanthemum Society bloom classification. Class 1: ‘Mt Shasta’, best Irregular Incurve bloom, grown by David Curtis. Class 2: ‘Apricot Courtier’, best Reflex bloom, grown by David Eigenbrode. Class 3: ‘Golden Gate’, best Regular Incurve bloom, grown by Normandie Atkins. Class 4: ‘Peacock’, best Decorative bloom, grown by Ron and Georgene Hedin. Class 5: ‘St Tropez’, best Intermediate Incurve bloom, grown by David Curtis. Class 6: ‘Kelvin Mandarin’, Pompon bloom, grown by Ed Mascali. Class 7: ‘Peggy Stevens’, best Single and Semi-Double bloom, grown by David Curtis. Class 8: ‘Seatons Ruby’, best Anemone bloom, grown by David Curtis. Class 9: ‘Kimie’, best Spoon bloom, grown by David Eigenbrode. Class 10: ‘Delistar’, best