Church Mum Sale

[Nyboy]

My friend Nancy called me, every year her church has a Mums sale. It is one of their best fund raisers. A grower sells them super cheap to the church, even double priced they are cheaper then big box store. I buy a car full every fall. Besides Mums what fall decorations do you do ?

 

[aftermidnight]

My favorite fall flowers are Michaelmas Daisies, they come in all my favorite colors, pink, mauve, purple, white, wine and you can even add a touch of yellow with the little Solidaster, a cross between an aster and goldenrod. I had a huge bed of MD border at one time, all different varieties.

This is one I acquired a long time ago from The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific located just outside Victoria B.C. in Saanich http://hcp.ca/gardens_hcp/. At one time they had a magnificent long MD border, one could go and view it in the fall and place an order for root cuttings to be picked up in the spring.

"Adrianne" a New England aster, one of the taller ones with large flowers. I don't believe this one is sold commercially at least I've never seen it anywhere. I got mine at the HCP, I don't know if they even have it anymore. The fellow who originally planned and planted the aster border back in the 70's brought a lot of the varieties in from the UK.

I also brought in quite a few different varieties from Old Court Nurseries in the UK http://www.autumnasters.co.uk/ Alas one spring most didn't come back, something got them during the winter (voles?), still scratching my head over that one.

One of the asters I lost was "Alma Potschke" another New England aster, I love the color of this one, a hot cerise pink. I couldn't find a replacement anywhere so a Garden Web buddy in Ontario sent me some root cuttings last fall and now I have a row of these bordering our gravel driveway. I should have given them one more pinch in the spring to keep them a little shorter and they definitely need a stronger stake next year, time to get the rebar out .

Pictures taken in July much taller now and just starting to flower, each of these plants were tiny root cuttings just last fall. I'll try and get a pic when they're in full bloom.

I don't have many varieties now maybe half dozen or so but I keep an eye out for some of the older varieties which I much prefer. Another thing I've noticed the New England aster flowers seem to close up at night where the flowers on the New York varieties don't. Good thing to remember if you cut for bouquets.

Annette

 

[Nyboy]

Annette what is the border in your flower bed?

 

[aftermidnight]

@Nyboy are you asking about the edging, it's made with pressure treated 4x4s, they last a long time.
The plant in front of the daisies is an ornamental grass 'Carex flagellifera' (Weeping Brown New Zealand Sedge) This grass seeds itself around a bit but easily pulled out. What I like about it is it looks good all year long, a little tidy up in the spring with the dog comb spruces it right up .

I've used quite a bit of this in different ways in other parts of the garden. We took the little pool in the first pic out it was getting to be too much of a hassle for us old fogies to look after. The grass has been moved to a different location.

Annette

 

[digitS']

Bedding dahlias from seed are nice, too.

Steve
who has bought mums after Memorial Day in May, cut them back and enjoyed their blooms about now. Choose fall colors.

 

[aftermidnight]

Steve those are from seed? gorgeous, especially the last one. Flower good form, sitting on a nice straight stem, flower sitting at the right angle, clean foliage. Do you grow for show by any chance?
Do you get many green eyes, this seems to depend on the weather, I used to hate it when they appeared in mine as it nixed them from the show bench.

Annette

 

[digitS']

Oh no, Annette!

I meant dahlias from seed are nice in the fall! I'm often thinking of how to "trick" NyBoy into using his new sunshed to grow from seed .

No, the big dahlias in the pictures are from cloned tubers.

Steve
Edit: how about if we get him to grow China asters?

 

[seedcorn]

Tell me about dahlias from seed. Where do you buy the seeds from?

 

[aftermidnight]

I think at least in my neck of the woods you'll find them on the seed racks along with all the other seeds, but, this is seed for the low growing border dahlias and they as a rule are treated as annuals. They do make tubers tho, so, if you get a particularly nice one keep the tubers. You can collect your own seed from ones like Steve has but they won't come true to the parent, you could get something really nice or they can turn out to be rubbish.

Annette

 

[digitS']

Stokes Seed is one place where I've bought bedding dahlia seed.

An indoor start and then a long while until blooms ... they are much the same in looks as their big sisters. I have no success in keeping the bulbs through the winter although a shorter storage time or more ideal conditions should do it.

I did save some full-size pompoms from seed. They weren't outrageously wonderful, however. I lost them several years later mostly because I wasn't saving many of their tubers and there is always some loss in storage.

Steve