Is It Possible To Grow BIG Chrysanthemums

I was wondering if anyone has grown and/or knows the varieties of spider Chrysanthemums that florists typically use in bouquets? They are the spider chrysanthemums that can be as big as 6-7 inches in diameter. It looks like some of them are dyed to give them the red, orange and lime green colors.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=Spider+Mum&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search

This might help Jon.

~Daniel

Thanks Daniel. That's what I'm talking about. I do see Bluestone Perennials offers one of them (Carrousel) as a plant in the spring time.

Oooh. That's one plant I wouldn't mind paying for...

~Daniel

Me neither. I wrote it down on the "wish list" so I won't forget about it. There was another one on their website named "Wirral Pride" that looked pretty neat, even though it's not a spider-like bloom. It looks exactly like one of those echinaceas with pom-pom like blooms.

Jon, I think that is a Shasta Daisy.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55084/

I started noticing double forms sometime last summer. Now there are more doubles than singles in the PFs! lol.

Hi Jon, King's Mums is a good source for cuttings. You will have to wait 'til spring. Check out their website and send for their catalog. They have some beautiful stuff.

Wow. Thanks for the link. There are some beauties there. Wrote the website down so I won't forget it next spring.

Jon, it's important to know that those large 6-8" blooms you see in florist shops don't grow that way naturally. The plants have gone through a process called "dis-budding" (as well as a regimented feeding program ) to produce those huge blooms. Buying a plant with blooms that size and then planting it outside won't yield the same size blooms the following season as when you bought it unless you "dis-bud" the plant from the onset.

Essentially, dis-budding means removing all the side growth on a given stem and leaving only ONE flower bud...thus all the plant's energy goes into producing one huge blossom, as opposed to numerous smaller ones on multiple stems.

For example, when you see a pot of mums in a florist or a flower stall, and it has 5 or 6 huge flowers, EACH stem is actually a separate plant that has been rooted from a cutting and dis-budded to get that one big bloom. They add 5 or 6 to each pot for fullness, but it's actually 5 or 6 different plants in the same container.

If you look at the sides of each stem in the pot, you can see the "nubs" above the foliage where it was dis-budded to get the resulting single large blossom.

It's a time consuming process and needs to be adhered to if you want to get those big blooms, but it can be done.

Thanks for the information. I was reading about that process the other day. It seems that disbudding applies to many plants when you're trying to achieve large sized blooms. The process is used with hybrid hibiscus, dahlias, and, I'm sure, many other plants to produce the largest sized blooms possible. Many potted flower plants sold contain more than one plant per pot to achieve "fullness" in the container. When you look below the foliage you notice there are several plants in the pot. I've been placing several plants per pot now when transplanting seedlings into larger sized pots. It gives you the ability to grow more plants and it saves you some space by not having as many pots outside to care for. I'll probably never achieve the maximum bloom size with those mums, but that's alright. I'm always looking for something new/different to try each year and this seems like a good possibility for 2011. Thanks again everyone.

I use to grow all types of mums...spiders,spoons,quills,football(those big honker ones)cushion, daisy,etc but now all I have are the extra tall/extra late ones you can train to cascade as seen on King's Mums webpage.....therefore referred to as a cascade mum.

I have a big patch of open poly,self sown mums(daisy type) in a range of pink shades that are just the prettiest. From the length of the stems and the lateness of bloom they most likely the cascade's crossed babies.

I did pick up 3 small pots of mums yesterday at WM. Not really fall weather but they called to me"Buy me,take me home before they kill me"...looked like they had just come off the truck and that's the only time to buy WM plants.

Interesting Patty. Those "fall type" mums have just come out down here also. They're perfect for fall color further North of here. Those pick ones you've described sound very nice. My only concern is will I be able to grow them down here in the tropics. I've never thought of mums being a plant you can grow in tropical conditions......except during our winters. My brother, on the west coast of Florida, was able to keep is mum alive from last winter. It made it through the summer, so that's a good sign that perhaps it is possible.

Ah-Ha! Found last years pix. These are all growing in the same area. I didn't plant any pink and certainly not where they came up so I know they self sowed

Guess you'd call this dusty rose colored

Very nice. Thanks for posting the picture.

more purplely w/ pointery petals

these were all on one stem....I especially like the ones on the end that are just blushed w/ pink