Keep parent plants for one-off buys

Some of the chrysanthemum cuttings. Picture by Tom Pattinson.

When it comes to chrysanthemums, last year we enjoyed the company of the cultivar Boulou White, which stood in a large pot over Christmas. We had encouraged a few stems to develop on each plant with no disbudding for maximum effect.

I see it’s in Woolmans’ (www.woolmans.com) catalogue as part of a collection covering mauve, yellow, pink and orange. Five plants, one of each, cost £9.95, or three plants of a single colour are £5.95.

The other late success was part of the Hogmanay Collection, which comprises four varieties of Mayford Perfection in bronze, gold, pink and cerise, for £7.95. The latter costs £5.95 for three plug plants that were disbudded for a single, large bloom per stem.

With little or no frost around before the festivities, I kept the plants outside to delay flowering, and it worked. The blooms were still fresh indoors when February arrived.

Having retained the parent plants for stem cutting production and building our own stock, these were approached as one-off purchases.

The recent order, which I’m sharing with fellow enthusiast Alan, will add wider variety.