I was hoping that someone in a warmer zone was already cutting back their garden Mums. I'd like to try rooting them, I hear it's very easy. I would like quite a few since I am not sure of my sucess rate, and at least 4-6" long.
I would be happy to pay postage or could trade for something easy to send like ajuga, spiderwort, or ????
Thanks, Legit
Looking for Mum Cuttings
Would u be interested in a white mum, inherited with the house so no name, DH took down the hedge and they have to be moved in order for him to dig the stumps. I'd be interested in spiderwort or ? LMK Laura
Laura,
Are you offering the whole plant or planning on dividing it?? I would love to trade, names of plants are not important here, just trying to get my fall a little more colorful, as I have a huge long border.
I can trade as much spiderwort as you would like, I have a couple of different colors, with no names either. Let me know! Legit
Well, there's 3 large clumps, I would guess each is about 1 to 1.5 ft in diameter. I do not want them all. One clump is enough for me. How much do u want? I'm off tmr so I'll take a pic of them and u can tell me how much u want, ok?
That would be great, I'm off today also, working outside, but I'll be in and out! Thanks, Legit
Hi Legit,
I don't have mum cuttings, but I do have some small mum starts that are popping up from their woody stems. I moved the mums from their original garden and potted them until I could decide what to do with them. I believe there are white and purplish-pink mums in the group. I'd love to try some spiderwort. Let me know if you are interested.
Thanks,
Mary
Laura and Mary, sending you each a D-mail. Legit
I don't know if you would be interested, but I am ripping out a bunch of Clara Curtis this weekend. They are a bit too aggressive for me, but lovely.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1938/index.html
Legit I can send some cuttings on Monday of:
-- a small, semi-double lavender that is very prolific and cold-hardy here - gift from a neighbor - the most fool-proof one I have
the following may be of the following type, don't know exactly which is which right now:
-- low, bushy, very double small white fading to lavender (Concerto?)
-- this one may be either one of the foregoing, or from a seed packet of Park's exotic mums from a few years ago - hasn't bloomed yet. Don't have enough of its two siblings to share right now, but if this one is like them, it'll be something wonderful.
- - - - - - - - - -
Dmail me in 6 weeks for cuttings of the other three - they look like florist's mums, but have been cold-hardy here for 3 winters.
-- One is large, double, incurved bronze-red on top and pale buff underneath (can identify that one);
-- the other two are mixed up just with each other - one was clear, lemon yellow, semi-double with large, spoon petals and the other was large, very double, white faintly blushed yellow like yellow ice, incurved/spider. I hate to tantalize you with the second one, but it would be worth it to try to see if the cuttings of that suspect are true.
The Japanese grow these types of mums pruned one flower to one stalk and staked. Otherwise, they will flop, or could be cut back a few times for less magnificent flowers but less floppy plants.
So, have I thoroughly confused everyone, yet?
Legit, postage would be fine. If anyone else wants to trade mum cuttings, that would be great, too.
karen
Irishbelle,
I am not sure about the cold hardiness of the Clara Curtis, and to be truthful, you have scared me a little with the aggresiveness, but thank you anyway!!
Bluespiral you have a d-mail.
Legit
Gotcha - the rain today really put some size on what will be your cuttings.
karen
Legit asked me about winter hardiness for mums, so thought others gardening up north might find my answer helpful:
MULCH -
Although mulch is fine in summer, it is especially important for winter survival when it is applied AFTER the ground freezes to keep it frozen. Here in Maryland, we have alternate freezing and thawing that kills plants not well established or marginally hardy. If your winter conditions stay cold instead, then mulch would still help ameliorate the amount of cold you get. Just be sure that, in the spring, you remove the mulch early enough that new leaves don't smother or feed the slugs - and that you remove it late enough so that the plants get the winter protection they need - tricky to find middle ground there.
TUNNELS -
In addition to mulch, there are various ways to further protect your mums from winter cold:
-- greenhouse
-- make a frame or tunnel of hazel hoops (any flexible wood will do - some people use pvc pipe or untreated lumber) and then drape a floating row cover over that and weight it down. Darius posted elsewhere that these floating row covers (made of woven polyethelene) come graded with respect to how many climatic zones of cold-hardiness they will add to the one you are in.
-- cold frame - we made a triangular wood frame about 4' x 4' x 6' into which we set recycled window sashes on hinges. Then, we covered that with 2 layers of very thick transparent plastic. This enabled us to harvest Asian relatives of the cabbage family into December here and then again from the following March - would probably work with mums, too. There's probably a better way to build one of these contraptions so that it's easier to ventilate the frame on warmer days.
-- surround your mums with bales of hay and top with an old window sash or piece of translucent fiberglass, etc. - I think Horseshoe said he was going to try this with some of his mums last fall.
GENETICS
The most important thing about getting mums through the winter is genetic - some mums are genetically predisposed to be more winter hardy than others. There were some very cold-hardy mums bred in Minnesota and some in Canada by research facilities. Possibly, you could click on www.google.com and type in the search box:
chrysanthemum + Minnesota
One useful site that came up with the foregoing search was: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG6336.html
One thing that says a mum is more winter hardy than another is when, in the fall, you see new shoots at the base of the flowering plant in its pot. But as to what zone they would be hardy to, I couldn't guess.
Another Google search could be:
chrysanthemum + "cold hardy"
Another link that might yield some key words to google for hardy mums is:
http://www.growit.com/bin/KnowArt.exe?MyKnow=204
SEED
Having said all of the foregoing, mums get diseases over time, and the solutions for that entail either chemicals or renewing your stock from seed. If I had the sunny room in my garden, I would love to sow some packets of chrysanthemum seed and just row them out and - in Legit's climate - give them the mulch/tunnel protection over winter.
Seed used to be easy to come by of the Korean types of mums, which are said to be more cold-hardy, and paradoxically, the southern gardener Elizabeth Lawrence found them especially accomodating to her summer heat and humidity. I know of one gardener who rowed out his Korean mum seedlings and just went down the row with hedge clippers a couple of times before July 1 to make them sturdier and bushier. If you do start seed this year, do it as soon as possible to give the seedlings time to establish their root systems in the ground before fall frost.
If anyone finds a source of mum seed with exotic shapes of flowers or of the old fashioned Korean daisy strain of mixed colors that are so wonderful for cutting, I hope you'll share them here.
Hope this helps -
karen
Legit, I have several seedlings that have come up beside clumps of mums I have had for years. I have potted some up, and they are doing fine. If you are interested, I would be happy to trade with you. These are yellow, don't have a name, but that does not matter to me either. D-mail me if you are interested in trading.
defoecat, I would love to trade with you for something other than mums, I don't have much of a selection of them yet. Is there something you can use? Legit
Legit, tell me what you have. I started a new perennial bed this year and can use more. I will take almost anything. LMK.
defoecat, are you sun or shade? I have more choices in sunny plants. Do you prefer multiples of the same kind, or a mixture?
Legit
legit, most of my yarden is sun. I have a new perennial bed this year, so about anything would be good. Are you in the addy exchange? I am. I will get those babies potted up and in the mail to you tomorrow.
Yes, I am in the addy exchange. If you don't mind, I work full time, and am having a plant sale starting on Thursday night, so I probably won't be getting yours out until next Monday. I will scout around and give you a few choices of what you might like! Legit
Legit asked me about chrysanthemum seed, so thought my remarks might be helpful in this thread --
I suspect that mums could be wintersowed, because I have seen them self-sow in my garden. If you find some seed you like, then I would buy 2 packets - one to experiment with wintersowing and the other for insurance to sow later.
Also, I have read that seed can be ripened on flowers in jars of water indoors to be sown later on. I tried it on those hardy florist's mums last winter and the seed I got doesn't look very well developed. I think I would have done better if I had done something about what appeared to be white flies on the flowers. Am certainly trying again this fall.
It is a shame what's happened to our seed industry. When I began gardening in the 70s, there was a much greater variety of seed available for a fraction of today's cost - very sad.
http://www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront had chrysanthemum 'Autumn Glory' in its print catalog last fall, but it's not on line now - it's a low, spreading variety with semidouble, mixed colors that once covered one of our slopes entirely - took 3 years for that effect to occur, though.
Here's a link that evaluates varies seed houses. I haven't tried all of them. Chiltern's always seemed to be the last-ditch source of something hard-to-find, but the expense and currency conversion were too big a hassle for me.
karen
irishbelle, Very pretty!
Sherrygirl
legit, life got in the way the past couple of days, but will ship out the chrysanthum tomorrow.
Legit and others: I have about 30 florist mums in pots that I bought for pennies on the dollar in a plant bargain sale. I can't use that many mums, even with a 1/2 acre yard to fill. I can ship them for SASE. They are ready to have their spent flower heads chopped off and be stuck in the ground. I would prefer to send them with the soil remaining around the roots to reduce the stress of the plant in shipment, but will wash off the soil and send them bare root, if you or your State require it.
Send me a D-mail, all that are interested.
I've been overwhelmed with the number of bargain plants that have come my way lately (about 2,000 and the supply is continuing!), so it may take me a while to get around to shipping, but I'm hoping to catch up on trades within the next few days.
Jeremy
Jeremy, this is awfully nice of you - I have room for 3 more - would you have a white and a pale pink and a dark red to part with? or lavender?
Is there anything else you're looking for we could trade? If not, will do SASE. How much money in stamps would that be?
many thankyou's
karen
defoecat, sent you a d-mail.
bluespiral, keep your fingers crossed for the cuttings, they are still looking alive, but have some yellow leaves.
Kooger, the white mums you sent are off and running. I think I will use the tips of them for another round of cuttings! Wish me luck there!!
Legit
Great!
legit, sorry that they mums didn't arrive in good shape. After the holiday, I will put some more in the mail to you.
I got requests for mums from Melissa_Ohio, BlueSpiral, and Legit. I'll be shipping them out Tuesday/Wedesday 5/30 - 5/31.
I have to CLOSE the offer to others. I went ahead and put about 30 remaining florist mums in my garden! If they rebloom this fall, it should be a nice show.
Jeremy