It’s January, and my Kings Mums catalog became available online today. I plan to submit entries to three local chrysanthemum society exhibition shows this year, so I have some important decisions to make.
1. How Many Chrysanthemum Plants?
Mature chrysanthemum plants are grown in 10-inch pots; each pot contains one plant pruned to three stems. As I live in small, retirement center home with a limited amount of garden space, I plan to grow a total of 100 chrysanthemum plants. That should give me 300 blooms to enter in October and November show exhibitions.
2. What Class of Chrysanthemum?
King’s Mums catalog offers nearly 200 different chrysanthemum cultivars separated into 13 classes. In each class the blooms conform to the same specifications. For example, the class one Irregular Incurve has ray florets, usually smooth, broad, and fairly long, that incurve in an overall irregular manner to form a large bloom of 6 to 8 inches. Lower florets may swirl in an irregular pattern. Compare that to the class eleven Spider, whose ray florets are long and tubular, may be very fine to bold, and may assume a wide variety of directions; the disk may not be apparent; the size can range from 6 to 15 inches. I grow blooms in all thirteen classes.
3. What Sections?
The entry card required to enter a chrysanthemum bloom in a show exhibition needs a section number, as the blooms are placed together according to section letters that range from A to R. Strategies for growing plants vary depending on the section in which they will be shown. Blooms may be displayed as 1, 3, or 5 cut blooms; 1, 3, or 5 terminal NCS sprays; in containers (pots) of disbudded blooms, sprays, not disbudded blooms; Fukusuke (short); cascades; trees; bushes; bonsai; cut garden cultivars. Novices exhibit in their own section. I choose the following sections to enter chrysanthemum blooms in this year.
Section A. One Disbudded Bloom (Picture 1) Disbuds are grown one bloom to a stem. I plan to enter disbudded blooms from all 13 classes. This picture is an irregular incurve named “Kings’ Pleasure” It won the best of irregular incurve section last year.
Section B. Three Disbudded Blooms (Picture 2) Disbudded blooms may also be shown in sets of three either as cut blooms or as three blooms in one container. The exhibition rules state that the three blooms should be the same size. I won’t know how many set of three I will enter until my blooms are mature. This blue ribbon set-of-three is of the spider “Senko Kenshin.”
Section C. One Terminal NCS Spray (Picture 3) An NCS terminal spray must contain at least five blooms on the last flowering growth of a stem. The blooms should be uniform in color, form, size, and substance. The lead, or terminal bloom must be present, and be as high or higher than all the other blooms in the spray. Only one bloom per pedicel may be retained.
Section D. Three Terminal NCS Sprays (Picture 4) Sprays may also be entered in sets of three. The difficult part is finding three sprays of the same maturity and bloom size. The picture shows my “Kelvin Mandarin” class six Pompon entry.
Section L. Group P-3: 1 bloom, Fukusuke (Picture 5) A special type of container entry is a Fukusuke. The container can be no more the six inches in diameter and the height can be no more than 16 inches to the top of the stem. Any disbudded chrysanthemum cultivar may be grown as a Fukusuke.