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Growing a potted Aster?

BMLBML Posts: 151

This is an Aster that I bought at a garden centre and I wonder if it is possible for a very basic gardener to create such a pot.

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  • DimWitDimWit Posts: 553

    I don´t think it is an aster, BML, probably an argyranthemum  (google).

  • BMLBML Posts: 151

    Many thanks for that answer but good lord almighty, 81 years of age and I've only just discovered that a plant that I've been buying for some years is not what I thought it was.  

    I'm not tight but I don't like throwing living plants away so I have been cutting them back and keeping them for the forthcoming year but the only problem is that they don't start to bloom until October.  

    Now the only question is, "Is it possible for pathetically inadequate gardeners to grow such things and if so, how." 

  • DimWitDimWit Posts: 553

    For a good identification, check the leaves: if they are rather narrow, that´s Argyranthemum (marguerite), if larger, they´re Dendranthemum (florist´s chrysanthemum). Anyway, they bloom at the end of the season only (though they can be forced to flower at other times in professional greenhouses). You can try and take cuttings from them, snipping young shoots of about 6 inches and keeping them frost-free till spring.

  • BMLBML Posts: 151

    I just received a reply to my question from the Garden Centre where I bought the plants and they say that its a chrysanthemum.

    I would very much like to have a go at growing plants of the standard I show above and wonder if anyone could offer advice on this.

  • BMLBML Posts: 151

    The chrysanthemum plants that I have a photograph of which I have posted are all going over and I would like to know if there is anything I can do with them.  Will they flower again next year and if so what do I have to do to keep them?

    Having said that I was on my way through the New Forest area and I saw the same sort of plant still in full flower and was told that they are Autumn plants.

    I would still like to know how one creates such plants.

     

  • You do it the same way you would create a standard fuchsia, or any other suitable plant: start with a strong, straight cutting and train it.I have a standard lantana, which is lovely, about 4 years old now.

    Probably easiest to find the info for fuschas though, as it is quite often done with them. Chrysanths would need careful support as it would take a while to get a strong stem, the first growth is quite soft.

    Difficult to say if yours will regrow. Usually the top growth dies back and new shoots come from the base in spring. I have tried to keep larger plants (though not standards) but they generally look pretty moth eaten the following year and new ones from cuttings do better.

    Last edited: 11 October 2017 17:59:43

  • BMLBML Posts: 151

    My apologies but I should have mentioned that I was referring to the bushy type Chrysanthemum in the photograph above.  I don't have the confidence to attempt to grow the aristocratic Chrysanthemum.  

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