Notice

Colin Mills, compiler of the Hortus Camdenensis, died in late November 2012 after a short illness. As he always considered the Hortus his legacy, it is his family's intention to keep the site running in perpetuity. It will not, however, be updated in the near future.

Dendranthema x grandiflorum ‘Old White’

A cultivar of Dendranthema x grandiflorum Kitam. Tassel flowered chrysanthemum.  Listed in the catalogues as ‘Old white from China’. ‘The first white flowered variety known in our gardens.  It is recorded in the Horticultural Transactions to have been raised from a sporting branch of [the Tasselled Purple], and, indeed resembles it in everything but colour.  It is a very graceful and elegant plant, and in warm situations its flowers are often more or less tinged and dotted with purple or blush colour.’  The ‘Tasselled Purple’ is described as ‘a very beautiful and rather early-flowering plant, of almost the middle size.  The flowers are very numerous, and gracefully drooping, and of middle size.’  [FC p.73/1833].  ‘Most of the [varieties] seem to be permanent; but some of them, we are told, are liable to change their colour from change of soil and situation; and the one here figured has certainly this tendency, and owes the rich colour of the inner petals to its having been planted in a warm situation, where it was exposed to a very burning sun; and may therefore be expected, under different circumstances, to return again to its original white.’  [BM t.2042/1819].

Horticultural & Botanical History

For general information on the botanical and horticultural history of the Florists’ chrysanthemum see Dendranthema x grandiflorum Kitam.

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1845, 1850 and 1857 catalogues [H.64/1845].

Notes

Published Apr 13, 2009 - 05:05 PM | Last updated Aug 28, 2011 - 04:59 PM

Shown is a semi-double chrysanthemums, white with pink petals in the centre.  Curtis's Botanical Magazine t.2042,1819.

Dendranthema x grandiflorum ‘Old White’  | BM t.2042/1819 | BHL

 

Family Asteraceae
Category
Region of origin

East Asia originally but certainly of garden origin in both China and Japan

Synonyms
  • ‘Changeable Tasselled white’
  • ‘Changeable White’

 

Common Name

Florists‘ chrysanthemum

Name in the Camden Park Record

Chrysanthemum sinense Old White from China

 

Confidence level high