MUMs!

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Fascinating article!
Do the spider or cremon or esfera ever cross pollinate?

No idea, my first target is the single-stem cremon MUMs, but some spider varieties are extremely lovely, too. If gardening is a universe, individual plants sometimes look like black holes (or wormholes) to me.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Well, well, well, they (chrysanthemum morifolium) are in fact much more showy than I expected!

Next year, I will absolutely pay more attention to de-budding and feeding.

The white ones are also shiny.

So, the white ones are growing together with normal garden mums (chrysanthemum indicum). The two varieties can have similar sizes, but the flower patterns are pretty different.

 

[baymule]

They are so pretty!

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I got two Tea Chrysanthemums from an online nursery. To be honest, the quality is surprisingly poor. I was reluctant to do so, but I can't find an exact answer about which type of mums I can use for tea.

Some said all mums' flowers are edible; some said the white and yellow varieties are better; some said all mums are slightly poisonous, etc.

Well, I am used to having tea (made by chrysanthemums morifolium Ramat), but they are not available here. Chrysanthemum morifolium includes a lot of varieties, and I have no idea which to go ahead with. In the end, I bought two, and the nursery's label said: Tea chrysanthemum morifolium/yellow or white.

The plants show that they were ignored and had no proper care. When you transplant anything like this, it's a bad start.

This spring, I knew nothing about mums' basal shoots, so I made a lot of cuttings for propagation. From now on, I will make good use of them.

I removed all the stems, took some good cuttings, and then divided the two plants into six (each has roots and new shoots). Plus a few cuttings from grapes and red chestnuts - these are my hands-on practices today.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Same variety, same mother plant, same propagation conditions - different flower sizes and height

This is one of the two garden mums (chrysanthemum indicum) I propagated (the other one is pale pink). I was a newbie when I used the cuttings and knew almost nothing about mums. In the past, I just treated them as annuals and chopped them for compost after deadheading.

Along the way, I learned more about mums and got a lot of pleasure from growing them. Most garden mums are like this - the 10 Liter pots are their final stops (for this year). So, they look similar - like splendid buttons.

The diameter of full blossoms is about 2~3cm.

However, I didn't make any labels while preparing the cuttings, so I didn't know which one was which before they finally showed some colors.

When I repotted those rooted cuttings, again, there was no label. I only put the c.morifolium cuttings aside, but at the end, two c.indicum cuttings were repotted with the white c.morifolium. They were taken to my FIL's garden in Cologne, where the growing environment was another story.

They looked so similar (flower size, plant height, leave shapes) before the bloom, but their flowers are different.

The flowers are much larger than the ones transplanted into 10L pots - like Giants.

It's almost funny to see the differences.

It's not only interesting but also makes me curious about what level of difference I can control and present as a home gardener.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

2022.11.16
It keeps raining, which is pretty bad for the MUMs. I removed most of the flowers but kept the foliage. After the foliage dies down, I will remove them into the hoop tunnel for overwintering.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

The cuttings I propagated on September 11th - They still decided to flower about two months later. Such a tiny cutting!

But they do well and are generous about presenting their beauty. At this time of the year, it's extremely lovely to have some flowers in the greenhouse.