Gardening
Mums, a Traditional Fall Favorite
Mums add beauty and fall color whether growing them indoors or in the garden.
Photo credit: photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
The rich colors and fall bloom of Chrysanthemums represent fall for many. It's also the November birth flower symbolizing cheerfulness, optimism, and friendship. Add a few to your indoor décor and help improve the indoor air quality in your home.
This traditional favorite is often overlooked for other newer introductions. Mums' long vase life, variety of flower shapes, and array of colors have helped it maintain a role in flower arrangements, gift plant sales and fall gardens.
These plants begin to flower based on day length. As days shorten and nights lengthen, the plants begin to flower. Those grown as gift plants, often called florist mums, or for cut flowers usually require the longest periods of uninterrupted darkness or shorter days. Growers can force them into bloom any time of the year by covering them to create the shorter days that initiate flowering. When these mums are grown under natural daylight they flower in late fall or early winter.
Maximize your enjoyment of potted gift mums by selecting plants with deep green leaves and only a few open flowers. Then enjoy watching the remaining buds burst into bloom.
Place the plant in a cool, brightly lit location free of drafts that can cause buds to drop. Water thoroughly and pour off any excess water. Or reduce maintenance by placing pebbles in the bottom of the foil wrap, decorative basket, or saucer. The excess water collects in the pebbles below the pot and eventually evaporates, increasing the humidity around the plant.
Remove faded flowers to keep your plant looking its best. Once it's done blooming, you can enjoy the greenery or add the plant to the compost pile. Keep in mind florist mums may not thrive or flower in the garden like those sold as hardy or garden mums.
Grow mums headed to the garden in a sunny window and water the soil thoroughly whenever it starts to dry. Wait for the danger of frost to pass before moving the mum outdoors. Pinch the plant back to four to six inches throughout June to keep it tidy and compact. Those with long growing seasons can continue pinching plants through mid July. If lucky, you will have flowers before the snow flies.
Next year, consider planting a few mums in the garden for an added blast of fall color. Garden mums are sold at nurseries and garden centers each fall. They may be hardy and suited to the area, but all the energy is directed to the flowers. This leaves little to establish a hardy robust root system for winter survival.
Those sold as perennial mums are usually hardy enough to survive the winter and flower early enough to provide weeks of color in the garden. Increase your success by planting them in spring. This allows the plant time to develop a robust root system before it begins flowering in the fall.
As the holidays approach, celebrate the season with a potted chrysanthemum or a few flowering stems. Then plan on adding some perennial mums to your garden next summer.
Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio segments. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Tips for Buying Antiques and Collectibles
In my recent columns, I offered tips for selling your antiques and collectibles. I realize many of you enjoy the thrill of hunting for items for your collections, so today's column will focus on tips for collectors.
I received a question at a recent presentation which made me think more about how collectors can find items for their collections. The person who asked the questions collects pocket watches. He said that he frequently goes to estate sales and tag sales but only occasionally finds pocket watches. When he goes to antique shops, he sometimes finds booths that are full of pocket watches and wonders how dealers are able to find large collections of watches that can fill a booth in an antique shop.
Whether you are collecting pocket watches or have a different item you're hunting for, there are some things you can do to improve your odds of making that next great find. I'll discuss pocket watches in this column because that's what the person who asked the question was interested in, but these tips apply to any type of antique or collectible.
The most important step is to learn as much as you can about the items you are interested in collecting. You can find books on almost area of collecting to increase your knowledge. You can also find plenty of websites full of information. For example, a web search for "collecting pocket watches" produced nearly 8 million results. Many dealers like sharing their knowledge and passion for what they sell. If you find someone who specializes in what you collect and it is a slow time during a show, they'll likely be very happy to answer your questions and offer advice to a fellow collector. If there is something specific that you collect, they may even contact you if they happen to find items that may interest you.
When I answered the question about where dealers get their inventory, I explained that there are many different ways and dealers often use a combination of methods to acquire items. Some dealers are also collectors and sell items for extra cash to purchase items for themselves. Many purchase items from estate sales and auctions. When people see that a dealer at a show or in a shop specializes in specific such as pocket watches, they may be inclined to bring their watches specifically to that dealer to sell.
My advice for collectors who are looking for specific items is to cast a wide net in your search. Visit local antique shops and speak with the owners. Go to estate sales, tag sales and flea markets. Websites like estatesales.net and estatesales.org list local sales. These sales are primarily run by estate sale companies, but you can find smaller sales run by individuals in the classified ads of this publication and other newspapers. You can also find live and online auctions on auctionzip.com.
Before I became an auctioneer, I spent Saturday mornings at estate and yard sales and Sundays at flea markets and antique shows looking for things for my personal collection. I rarely found the local sports and railroad memorabilia that I was looking for, but I was able to find many other items that other collectors might be interested in. I sold items I didn't collect and had some additional funds to buy things for my collection. Even though the weather is getting cooler, there are still plenty of sales running and you can always buy or bid online. Happy hunting!
We currently have two online auctions running. Session I with gold jewelry, diamonds, gold coins and Rolex watches ends November 30th. Session II with sterling silver, paintings and other artwork, silver coins, sports cards, comic books and other antiques and collectibles ends on December 1st. Please visit our website for more details on upcoming events: www.centralmassauctions.com
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique Auctions, Estate Sales and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111) info@centralmassauctions.com