Annual Chrysanthemums: Bright, Early, and Long-Blooming

Colorful Mediterranean Natives for Autumn

Unlike the muted, mostly warm-toned perennials that sustain the autumn border, annual chrysanthemums are generally earlier, brighter, and flower longer. You're likely to encounter two kinds, both native to the Mediterranean region and both recently renamed by taxonomists (the new designation follows the old in these descriptions).

Tricolor Daisy

Chrysanthemum carinatum (now Glebionis carinatum) is a 1- to 3-foot-tall annual whose flowers have bright bands of color around dark centers.

Favorite Varieties: Court Jesters mix comes in orange, rose, salmon, scarlet, white, and yellow. White Carinatum Dunnettii Choice mix has white, yellow, bronze, and crimson flowers. In 'German Flag', scarlet rays and a golden yellow band surround the central disk. Merry mix has multicolored bull's-eye flowers on 2- to 3-foot-tall plants. Single Annual mixed comes in yellow, pink, purple, and rust.

Crown Daisy

Chrysanthemum coronarium (now Glebionis coronaria) usually has yellow petal-like rays and a yellow central disk—a perfect match for its name, which combines the Greek for gold (chrysos) and flower (anthos). Flowers can be single or double.