I love mums, and I'm so glad I happened on this thread. I'd suspected that about the hormones and the breeding (so that the perennial strengths of the plant are weakened in the ones most often sold in garden centers etc.) My cousin bought three humongous mums for the front porch as is her yearly tradition, apparently. They really are pretty, and they are now mounds of bloom in rootbound condition in pots that are way too small.
She wants to plant them, so I've been thinking about how best to try to insure their survival and also how to weave them in to the garden without having them just take up a lot of space and then die.
So, this helps.
I am also reminded that in Chinese Traditional Medicine, the Chrysanthemum is a regular component in the Materia Media, used in tea. Chrysanthemum tea is lovely, but of course you want the *right* chrysanthemum for brewing. Once I tried growing some but I didn't have a good enough follow-through and though I forget just what happened, it didn't work out.
Here's the Wikipedia article on Chrysanthemum Tea, with some listed varieties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
I may search out some seeds and try again, if I can figure out what to look for!
