A Long Winter

Sorry things have been quiet in this neck of the woods. Some unexpected work travel saw me in Germany for a week in late July and the chrysanthemums have been slow off the mark.

Whilst I would usually try to start in mid - late July, the plants just weren't ready so I didn't make a start until 18 August. This means another few weeks until I can start stocking some on the site, but honestly the plants are still a little slow (despite a lovely burst of false spring we've had).

Now the rain is back and I'm catching up on some updates here. I've added a few more listings and more will come as the plants progress. I expect much, much more availability in October so don't stress about missing out! As I have mentioned on instagram and here, it's just not feasible for me to do pre-sales because I don't grow in the volumes that flower farmers have capacity for and I want to make sure I have quality cuttings ready for sale.

I thought I would talk a little about some of my setup this year. Some things I have used before, like my jiffy plugs, heat mats with thermostats and seedling propagators with starter trays (128 holes). But I've also setup this year with grow lights and a chrome shelving to make sure the plants get enough light and that the setup doesn't take over my whole house.

It's going well so far for the most part, but I am a little concerned the heatmat has taken a little too much moisture from the centre of the tray, I'm waiting to see if a few cuttings bounce back.

Cuttings Process

I took a few photos whilst taking cuttings in case that's useful information for you getting started - so I thought I would add in some instructions too. Everyone has their own process they refine over time and I will be honest and say, mine is still evolving. I have good results but also do have losses - sometimes from lack of moisture to the plugs, sometimes too much moisture - so I do like to adjust as I go. I've tried using different combinations of cuttings mix, vermiculite, perlite etc but I've found the plugs to be more consistent for me. I do think though that maybe they are too small for some of the thicker stemmed cuttings so when I use up the batch I have, I may hunt around for other options.

The day before (or in this years case, two days before) I give all my stock plants a good water (with thrive fertiliser) so they have time to get hydrated. I also sprayed with Rose Shield and made sure that the plants have had time to soak that in. Whilst it's important to keep aphids out of your cuttings, the fungicide element is particularly important here to prevent damping off.

Then I just work plant by plant writing labels, taking cuttings, dipping in rootex and inserting into the plugs. The pre-dibbed holes aren't usually enough to get the job done, so I have one of my sewing tools - my awl - on hand to bore the hole out a little more as needed.

Here are my tidied up cuttings ready to cut and add rooting hormone

Here are my tidied up cuttings ready to cut properly and add rooting hormone

And here's how I cut them, making sure I cut a leaf node near the top for the best root growth

Using the awl to bore out the plug slightly

Dip in diluted Rootex and gently push into the plug

I do try to work quickly as the plugs and the cuttings will lose moisture as you work. This year I also left spacing between the cuttings to give them some breathing room. In previous years I have lost some to damping off and this can then impact the cuttings closest to it. Hopefully the spacing helps this year - it definitely makes it easier to monitor the cuttings while they are rooting.

And here's a view of my setup.

Propogator with cuttings spaced out - setup on a heatmat with lighting

This year I have drilled a hole into the lower part of the tray to insert the thermostat cable/probe. Then I insert the probe into one of the jiffy plugs. This means it is actually measuring the temperature in the plug (ie: soil temp).

I'd set the temp to 19 celcius but now after 2+ weeks I think that may be a bit warm. Everything seems to be rooting ok but the plugs are losing a bit too much moisture. I've turned the heat off today to see how things bounce back.

My cuttings setup has taken over my dining room and the ambient temp is about 17 degrees.

Non-Chrysathemum things

As a side note, I have also caught the pansy craze. I'd already been growing some viola around the garden and I was inspired by the idea of using them as cut flowers. I particularly love how Brenna covers the history of pansies/viola growing in her book. I'd been doing a lot of similar research on chrysathemums and I just love how much effort she went to, to source information.

I planted some seeds last week and some are already sprouting - fastest I've ever had. I have them on the bottom shelf of my setup, in the same propogation dome setup with 72 cell trays - without the heat mat - but with their own light.

I'm dreaming of chianti mix and flamenco terracotta with lovely long stems all summer.

New Chrysanthemum Cultivars & Research Mission

I visited some Chrysanthemum Vic Members last week and they kindly offered for me to take cuttings. I so I will have some fantastic new plants to grow on this year and expand on my chrysanthemum empire.

There's a number of Seatons cultivars (perfecta! marilyn! pink bliss!!) and some Stoakes - including one I had never heard of - Dreamtime.

Later in the season when I'm stopping my first round of plants, I may save a few as cuttings to sell. We'll see how it pans out.

In November I will be doing something I have been wanting to do for many years - I am spending a few weeks in Japan with the specific aim of going to chrysanthemum festivals. I am also going to the home of Japanese chrysanthemum breeding - Kokka. I am beyond excited!

This means there will be a little break in my availability but it also means chrysanthemum photos galore from me, crazy amounts of inspiration to see me through summer to autumn and maybe some cool tools to add to the shop for your chrysanthemum growing.

Become a Member? Grower?

One of the real challenges we have - and one many garden clubs face - is ageing membership and people have extremely limited time to volunteer or show blooms.

This is my call out and request - if you are interested in chrysanthemum growing, even on a small scale - please get involved if you can. Members of Chrysanthemum Society Vic get free plants (yes! free!) as part of their initial membership and you don't need to be based in Melbourne, we ship. We also hold our plant sale in October at our AGM and they will be cheaper than I sell cuttings for. I am holding over some cultivars I have in smaller numbers specifically for the plant sale so you will find things there that I wont have here.

You can find all the details on the website https://sites.google.com/dewit.cc/chrysanthsvic/

And yes, that website is my doing too!

We are really keen to see new growers and support them. We also are really keen to have members entering flowers into the show and are looking at how we can adapt our show schedule to make it more accessible. You don't have to grow 100 plants, or even 20! Pick a few cultivars you want to focus on growing and just get started.

For our club, and chrysanthemums in particular, we face a challenge in the very long season to get to flowers, work effort involved to get there and the short time we get to enjoy these wonderful flowers. I hope though, that you are even half as obsessed as I am and that maybe you can see your way to helping preserve the growing knowledge and cultivars into the future as I have.

And a Final Note - Experiments!

One more exciting thing I want to do this year is try out a Japanese method of growing chrysanthemums called "Fukusuke". These are the dwarf plants you see around the time of Mothers Day.

I'll document that over summer and hopefully if I have some success, you may even be able to find some for sale around Daylesford.

Also, if you are local please do check out Larkspur Flowers as Elissa has a new studio and big things happening.

That was a very long post from me today, cuttings sales to come soon and good luck for the growing season ahead!