Chrysanthemum Memories - by Tas. Jones and Peter Brown, Secretary, Hobart Horticultural Society.

Tasman (Tas) JONES was born in Burnie, northern Tasmania on 7th April, 1904, where he completed his education and apprenticeship as a vehicle painter. In 1924 he moved south to Hobart, where he worked for 45 years before retirement, at Nettlefolds Motors. Of those 45 years, 37 were in the capacity as foreman of the paint shop. In 1927 he married his late wife, Rita, and had three children, Alfred, Dennis and Phyllis. Rita may be seen in that well publicised photo which appeared in 'The Australian House And Garden Book of Chrysanthemums" by Margaret Masters, 1969, illustrating the magnificence of the blooms grown by Tas for presentation at a Chelsea Show, 1966.

In 1934, a workmate by the name of Reg Kent brought two chrysanthemums into work, a red one and a yellow one. Tas was so impressed, he asked where he could get some of those plants. He was told that he would be given me some suckers to strike. After planting them very carefully and giving them a good watering, he felt very pleased with himself, but to his horror, when he went out to look at them next morning, only four of the 24 plants were still there. There was a lot of evidence that the snails had been very busy during the night. When Reg asked me how the plants were going, Tas had to tell him the sad story. Defender Snail Bait advice was freely given, and a promise that that the lost plants would be replaced.

Not knowing anything about the growing habits of chrysanthemums, he put the plants in a comer at the back of the house. They all grew very tall and spindly, and when a strong wind hit the back of the house, the developing blooms all bent over as if paying homage to the ground in which they were growing. The next year, 1935, he grew them at the back of the garden where they were in full sunlight for most of the day, and at the 1936 chrysanthemum show, he won a lst prize with three blooms of Louisa Pockett and 2nd prize with six blooms of Thomas W. Pockett. These two successes gave him more incentive to grow more plants, and in the 1937 Show I was lucky enough to win 12 First prizes and one Second out of my 13 entries, as well as the Grand Champion Bloom of the Show with a Miss Hilda Veal. This was a new variety he had bought from Jack Pockett who marketed his father’s new varieties. Tas grew four blooms on the plant and they were very even in every respect. He took the four to the show, but could not decide which was the best bloom to put in the six varieties class. I asked an old and very experienced grower Albert Allen, as to which was the best of the four. After studying them for some time, he said "it won't matter which one you put up, it won’t be beaten". So Tas was still left with having to make the decision for myself. Eventually he picked out what he thought was the best for the class of six, and put the rest in other classes. The bloom judged as Grand Champion Bloom was in fact his third choice! What a pity that that cultivar soon disappeared from the scene. He won the Grand Champion Bloom many times over in Hobart and many other shows in Tasmania including Davenport and Launceston.

At that time nobody in Tasmania could grow William Turner, but in Victoria, Jim Dyer was continually getting the Champion bloom with it. I wrote to him to try to get him to give me his growing methods. Dyer sent him a nice three page letter, and "Hey Presto", he won the Champion bloom at the very next Show with William Turner. His method was very simple. Not too much fertiliser and slit the stems under the bud one way, at the first sign of colour, and the other way one week later. This slit must go right through the stem and not just through the bark. Bill Baldwin, a very fine exhibitor in the late 1920's and 1930's did grow William Turner sufficiently well to become Grand Champion but his blooms were not as good as it was capable of being grown. His son-in-law Gordon Mitchell was also a good grower and had great success with Thomas W. Pockett. There were many good growers around during this period. Bill Pockett, a brother of Jack Pockett, but with his own business, grew the best blooms of Louisa Pockett that Tas had ever seen. Reg Kitchen of Sydney, was also successful with this cultivar and won several Grand Champions with it at the Sydney Show. Ben Hubbard was perhaps the "character" grower in Victoria at that time, and his exhibit of Patricia Barnett at the Box Hill Show was outstanding. This bloom had a beautiful frontal appearance, and there was a notice in front of the bloom to say it was staged to the growers liking and must not be moved. This did not go down too well with the Judges, because when they looked at the back there were no petals at all! No first prize ticket either.

On one occasion Hubbard went to Judge at the Hobart Show. There were about eight entries in a class for the Tasmanian Championship. He said that he could not judge them on the showbench, so be had them all taken across to the other side of the hall and put on the floor, where he would judge each bloom using a points system. After going to all the trouble of pointing, the entry with the most points was not the one be thought best, so he discarded his points system and gave first prize to the one he liked best. He later became Mayor of Ringwood, and delighted in driving around in an old grey Rolls-Royce. Roy Normond of Victoria, grew very good decoratives, and his blooms of Penrod were excellent. Tas's blooms of Mrs. Milton Gray would invariably get second place to those Penrods. Lou Haycocks was another good grower in Victoria. He grew all his blooms in pots. At one show at Box Hill, where Gus Harding and Tas had exhibited blooms, and were about to board a tram for Melbourne where we were staying, Lou asked where we were planning to have tea. He was told that Tas and Gus were heading back to their hotel in Melbourne. He said, "Don't be silly, come back with me, Beryl will get you some tea". Reluctantly, they decided to go with him as it was getting late. We arrived at his home at about 6pm. He opened the back door and called out to his wife Beryl, that he had two gentlemen from Tasmania, who had come for tea. She said "good-oh", and in no time steak and onions were sizzling in the pan, and did we enjoy them!

At about this time Merv. Spencer, Geoff. and Gus. Harding and Tas regularly took blooms to the mainland shows, but they did not get any reciprocation from the mainland growers. Geoff Harding was in the transport section of TAA. And was very helpful in collecting our blooms and weighing them in, Tas suspected a little bit lightly. Reg Berry, Show Manager for the Wodonga Show, invited Tas to exhibit at Wodonga. What an eye opener this proved to be, as they put on the biggest display of blooms at any show Tas had attended. Then there was the period when Hobart growers sent blooms to the Chelsea Flower Show in England. They comprised firstly, the best blooms from each garden, and the last two were from Tas's own garden. This started a chain of events of which had never been dreamt. Tas and Rita were invited to go to England and stayed there for nine months. What happened there, could only be described as the brotherhood of chrysanthemum growers. They were invited to many homes of growers in England and taken many hundreds of miles in their cars to see the beauty of the country. This brotherhood extends to all the places that Tas and Rita have been. Tas was always quite fair but fearless in his comments. An example of this occurred during a lecture he gave to growers in London on growing chrysanthemums in Australia. He was asked how Australian blooms compared to those he had seen in the U.K. He replied by saying that he had visited all the top UK shows, but had yet to see a bloom which would have been Grand Champion in Tasmania. After seeing his colour slides many of his audience agreed. In New Zealand, they visited the late Leo Clarke’s chrysanthemum nursery and despite the fact his wife was absent at the time, he invited us to have lunch with him, which he said would be tomatoes, bread and butter. Had he said a tomato, bread and butter, it would have been nearer the point as each tomato weighed about 3/4 lb. In all the States of Australia that Tas has visited, he found that that same friendly brotherhood exists.

On the question of growing in pots or in open beds, Tas found that the only difference it seemed to be was that plants in pots had to be watered more often. He still couldn't understand why the growers in the UK. pot on into larger pots, as he didn't think any advantage was gained by so doing . Generally speaking, he believed that varieties grown in open beds did seem to have a longer lifespan than those grown in pots and then placed in a glasshouse. The one exception to this is Majestic, which has been grown in England for over 50 years. The oldest variety that Tas grow was Madam E Roeger, which was raised in Belgium in 1894, and which he still exhibit.

It is important to have good drainage for chrysanthemums, so beds should be raised above the level of the surrounding ground. A soil pH of 6 to 6.6 is the ideal, and good blooms could be expected if the grower were to adhere to these requirements. There has been some controversy as to whether the dressing of blooms should be allowed. If you attend a National Show in London, you will see blooms being dressed right through the night prior to a show: If you attend an Agricultural Show, you will see cattle and horses being hosed, brushed and combed; this is show business, so why any difference with grooming chrysanthemums. However, this should not be overdone, and an incurved or incurving bloom should not be turned into a purely reflexed bloom. When Tas first started growing, a grower called Bill Baldwin came to see his garden. In the course of conversation, he was asked with what did he fed his plants. In a rather patronising way, he replied "Its like this sonny, I give them a little bit of everything, and not much of anything, and let them decide for themselves what they want". This proved to be very good information. At that time, Tas had what he called his 'stock bed', which was not given any fertiliser at all. Into this bed he would put plants of each variety that he grew, in order to get unforced suckers. He would reduce these plants to three blooms to each plant and when it came to showtime, he ended up showing as many blooms from that bed as he did from those beds which were fully fertilised. This revealed that beds which were in good condition, and whose soil is well balanced, didn't necessary need a lot of fertiliser. Over-feeding will cause more trouble than under-feeding. An excess of nitrogen must be avoided at all cost, as it will totally ruin potentially good blooms.

Tas would advise any new grower to only grow about a dozen plants in the first year, and, if successful, impulse will make him or her grow about 300 the next year! Varieties which crack the bark underneath the bud as it swells, should have their sterns slit just underneath the bud. Varieties which are subject to this cracking are the William Turner family, J.S.Lloyd, Patricia Barnett, Payneham Splendour, and to a lesser degree, Mrs J.R. Dyer, Madam E. Roeger, Elizabeth Shoesmith and Mark Woolman. A good guide is to look at the stem under the bud. If it suddenly swells or the stem twists like a corkscrew, it is a sign of distress, and it should be knifed immediately. Some growers regard this splitting as a fault, but Tas didn't think it was a fault to do what is necessary to produce a good bloom. Finally, the following varieties were grown fifty years ago and are still exhibited at Hobart shows today. These include:- T W Pockett, William Turner, J S Lloyd, Hugh Mitchell, Mrs J R Dyer, and Madam E Roeger. (This article was taken from "Chrysanthemums Down Under" Vol. 2 No 1, July 1991)

Tas was always good company, full of fun and interesting stories. He was very willing to pass on growing tips to new and old growers. He was always looking for ways to encourage people to take up chrysanthemum growing. An example was his sponsorship, over many years, of a scheme for growing chrysanthemums by the children from the Lenah Valley Primary School.

He was always a great supporter of the Hobart Horticultural Society of which he was a Life Member. He exhibited at every chrysanthemum show over the years, at most rose shows and also on occasions with daffodils and dahlias. His habit was to bring all his blooms to the hall on the day before the show and hide them under the benches until the morning of the show, when they would be uncovered to reveal their full glory.

Among his many achievements or recognition he was awarded the Tasmania Day Community Award in 1997. In 2001 he was awarded the Hobart City Council Centenary of Federation Local Hero Award, in 2002 the Australian Chrysanthemum Council honoured him by being the first recipient of their Distinguished and Meritorious Service Medal. He topped these honours by being awarded the 2003 Australia Day 'Citizen of the Year' by the Hobart City Council.

On January 15th, 2004, the world of Australian horticulture lost one of its legends when Tasman (Tas) Jones passed away from our chrysanthemum world as we know it. An outstanding grower and exhibitor, at the ripe old age of 99 years he had retired whilst still on top, for he held the title of Grand Champion Bloom for both chrysanthemums and roses at the 2003 Hobart Annual Show.

He was host to the members of the Chrysanthemum Section of the HHS on a monthly basis at his Lenah Valley home, right up to the time of his passing, leaving a great void amongst the members of that group. However, they all feel very fortunate in having enjoyed the friendship of this extraordinary, fun-loving champion grower. His will be a lasting memory.

A fitting testament to his standing in the community was the estimated gathering of some 400 respectful admirers who attended his funeral.