Harvesting History

Chrysanthemum Painted Daisy and Court Jester – 
A Little History and Some Growing Instructions

The Court Jester is a variety of Painted Daisy which is a member of the abundant Chrysanthemum family. Painted Daisies are annuals. It has been said that few flowers are more highly valued or widely grown than chrysanthemums. Chrysanthemums originated in China. Five hundred years before the birth of Christ, Confucius wrote about the flower. In 386 AD, chrysanthemums reached Japan via Korea, but the Japanese initially showed little interest in the flower. About 250 years after it was first introduced into Japan breeding programs with the flower began. The Chinese-Korean flowers were crossed with wild Japanese species with attractive results. Near the end of the 8th century, the chrysanthemum became the national emblem of Japan and the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a Japanese citizen was the Order of the Chrysanthemum.
The earliest record of chrysanthemums in Europe was made in 1688 by a Dutch botanist. The chrysanthemum would not appear in England for another 100 years. The first plants were received by Kew Gardens and the variety became known as Old Purple.
The Painted Daisies, Chrysanthemum Cavinatum, it is believed, were discovered in Northern Africa along what was called The Barbary Coast sometime during the 16th or 17th centuries. In the wild, these plants grow in the dry fields and wastelands of Morocco, Libya, Egypt and Nigeria. The plant was well known in the United States by the time Joseph Breck wrote in his 1851 book, The Flower Garden, “Tricolored Chrysanthemum – A hardy annual from Barbary, one and a half or two feet high, in flower from July to October. Disk of the flower purplish-brown, inner circle of the rays yellow, margined with white; very pretty.”
Seeds can be direct sown in the spring as soon as the danger of frost has passed. Cover with 1/2 inch of soil. Seeds will germinate in less than 2 weeks. Painted Daisies require full sun and like rich, friable soil. Plants should be thinned to 12 inches. Plants will begin to flower in late July and will continue until the first frost.