Changing colours

It is mid April and the Indian summer we are experiencing seems to slow down the autumnal process.  The colours are beginning to change, though, in the Manchurian pear tree.  It is at its best when all the leaves are in different hues of plum red and gold.  The peach tree is begining to turn yellow but the other deciduous trees are still green.  Even the rhus tree is taking its time.    It will take more cold weather before we can enjoy the autumnal colours.  It is not quite changing colours but the different chrysanthemums in my garden are blooming.  The small bush with bright yellow flowers looks brilliant even on a dull day.  The mauve and white ones look so open and friendly.

Chrysanthemums are so easy to grow.  I bought a few pots over a year ago and planted them in the garden, where they thrived with the help of compost and sheep manure.  When they finished flowering I pruned them back quite hard and took cuttings which had given me a few more plants.  Chrysanthemum flowers are sold in May for Mother's Day.  If you are interested in collecting the different colours, that is the time to buy a few pots and transfer them into the garden bed when the flowers have withered.  They need full sun or they will go scraggly.  Apparently chrysanthemums that have been treated to remain as a dwarf variety will also go scraggly when transferred into the garden.  The solution is to pinch the plant back about three times in spring and summer so it will stay compact.  I will be looking out for different shapes and colours of the chrysanthemums soon to add to my collection.