garden mums

When I was a kid in the late 40s and 50s I collected chrysanthemums. Lots of seasoned gardeners grew lots of varieties of hardy garden mums at that time and were only too happy to share them with a youngster.. The old garden catalogs had pictures of cushion mums on their covers. I think I had about 50+ varieties when I was in the 3rd grade. . I especially recall lots of bronze or rust colored mums 4-5 inches in diameter. In recent years I have tried to locate some of these heritage mums with little success. I have relocated Clara Curtis (pink species mum) but not many others. Few varieties I did find were weak and rarely survived for more than 2 seasons even with resetting each year. I would love to find some of the old varieties that folks have grown in their gardens for years. I almost forgot the spiders. My mother and grandfather grew large yellow and bronze spider type mums. It is interesting that it has been so difficult to find old mum varieties but I grow hundreds of varieties of daylilies and I have little trouble finding varieties from the 1920s & 30s. Where am I not looking that I should be?

You might try checking the National Chrysanthemum Society:

http://www.mums.org/index.htm

And King's Mums have the spider ones:

http://www.kingsmums.com/

X

Thanks for the suggestions. I have Kings catalog and get plants from them but I really am looking for old clones that have past the test of time. Too many of the new ones are really developed for growing in pots and last about two week.

You might ask this on the Plant Trading forum, Someone may have some available for trade or postage.

Bluestone Perennials always has a good selection of mums. That would bluestoneperennials.com