A short question

[stephen]

Hi all,

A friend of mine asked me if I could buy and send to him some seeds of Japanese chrysanthemum. I went to a big flower shop and as I couldn't find any seeds for sale I've asked someone there about this. He told me that they don't sell seeds because I'll get no Japanese chrysanthemum from seeds, only from cutting. He recommended me to buy some small plants instead.

I have no knowledge of horticulture and from what I've found on the net (ex.,

it is not clear for me why a Japanese chrysanthemum wouldn't grow from seeds also. Can someone enlighten me on this issue?

Thank you.

[stephen]

Hi all,

A friend of mine asked me if I could buy and send to him some seeds of Japanese chrysanthemum. I went to a big flower shop and as I couldn't find any seeds for sale I've asked someone there about this. He told me that they don't sell seeds because I'll get no Japanese chrysanthemum from seeds, only from cutting. He recommended me to buy some small plants instead.

I have no knowledge of horticulture and from what I've found on the net (ex.,

it is not clear for me why a Japanese chrysanthemum wouldn't grow from seeds also. Can someone enlighten me on this issue?

Thank you.

[Vox Humana]

1198_saga.asp)

Mums are so easy and fast to grow from cuttings that it wouldn't be worth the effort for people to grow them from seed. Furthermore, hybrids don't always grow true from seeds. In other words, the characteristics that you find desirable in the mother plant may not be passes on through seeds. (You may have seen this around the Thanksgiving table.) In some instances plants produce genetic mutations called "sports." The mutated part of the plant can be asexually reproduced though methods like tissue culture, but when they sexually reproduce, the mutation is not passed along. This is commonly seen in hostas.

[Stephen Henning]

Japanese chrysanthemums such as:

?Sagano yuki¹ white ?Yokobue¹ pale pink ?Fuji musume¹ pale pink, white tips ?Sagano hikari¹ pure yellow ?Saga komati¹ dark pink ?Saranami¹ pure white. ?Kishinoniji¹ light bronze ?Kiyomigata¹ bronze ?Kiyominokasumi¹ cream ?Senkyowakamizu¹ light purple

are hybrid cultivars and can't be propagated from seed. They must be propagated from cuttings or tissue culture.

There are species of chrysanthemums from China, Japan, and Russia, but I don't have the slightest idea of how to get seeds. There is a gene pool in Japan, but they only distribute seed to hybridizers.

[stephen]

Thank you all for the detailed explanations!