Gardening
Brighten Your Fall Landscape with Mums
Mums add seasonal color to the fall landscape.
Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
Mums are a favorite fall flower that adds weeks of seasonal color to containers, gardens and fall displays. They are also a popular gift plant in garden centers and floral shops. Choosing the right one for the purpose and providing proper care will help you achieve your desired results.
Start by selecting the best mum for your gardening goals. You'll find mums labeled as garden, perennial, gift or florist mums. All these names for plants that look alike can be confusing. The answer lies in their response to day length, hardiness and use.
Mums set flowers based on day length. Growers can force them into bloom by covering them to create shorter days that initiate flowering. Those grown as gift mums, often called florist mums, usually require the longest periods of uninterrupted darkness or shorter days. When these mums are grown under natural daylight they usually don't flower until late fall or early winter. These late bloomers are usually killed by cold temperatures before or soon after the flowers appear in colder areas.
Nurseries selling mums ready to flower in the fall often refer to them as garden mums. These may be perennial mums or “florist” mums forced to flower for fall displays. The intent is to use them as annuals. Select ones with lots of buds and just a few if any open flowers to maximize the bloom time and your enjoyment. Place one or two mums on the front steps, plant them in vacant spots in the garden or combine them with other fall favorites in containers.
These garden mums may be hardy and suited to the area but since all the energy is directed to the flowers little is left to establish a hardy, robust root system. If you have success overwintering your garden mums, feel free to brag. If your plants don't survive or you don't try, don't worry. You are using them as a fall annual as they were intended. This also provides space for new plants in the spring and an opportunity to try a different color mum next fall.
Those mums sold as perennials are hardy enough to survive the winter and flower in late summer or early fall providing weeks of color in the garden. They are often sold alongside other perennials, labeled as perennials, or promoted as hardy for the area. 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 which will increase its ability to survive cold winters.
Place mums in an area with full sun and water thoroughly and often enough to keep the soil moist but not soggy wet. Check the soil in containers daily and water when the top few inches of soil are starting to dry. Always use a container with drainage holes or a self-watering pot.
Increase overwintering success by leaving the plants intact in the garden over winter. Those gardening in colder regions may opt to cover the plants with evergreen boughs after the ground freezes, providing extra insulation. Remove the mulch when temperatures begin hovering above freezing. Whether covered or not, prune out the dead stems in spring as new growth appears.
Whatever you call them, add a few colorful mums to your fall displays. You are sure to enjoy the blast of color they provide to your landscape before winter arrives.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener's Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Character Toys
Photo courtesy of Wayne Tuiskula
The latest auction news begins here in New England, where a New Hampshire woman who purchased old frames from a thrift shop later found that she had walked away with something much more significant. An old white frame she purchased for $4 from a Saver's store held a painting by renowned artist N.C. Wyeth, according to NPR. Maine conservator Lauren Lewis was called in to help determine the painting's authenticity. She described Wyeth as one of the "preeminent illustrators in the early 20th century." Wyeth's illustrations appeared in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1911 "Treasure Island" book. He was the father of painter Andrew Wyeth and grandfather of artist Jamie Wyeth. The painting was one of four illustrations that Wyeth did for Helen Hunt Jackson's "Ramona," which is about a Scottish-Native American orphan living in California after the Spanish-American War. After consulting with Christine Podmaniczky, curator emerita of the Brandywine Museum of Art, Lewis determined it was an authentic Wyeth. The sellers have chosen to remain anonymous, but Lewis did share some information about them. "They are not your typical art collectors," she stated. The auction estimate is $250,000 and "this would be life-changing for them," she added.
Elsewhere in the United States, a gun created during the 1976 Bicentennial for Elvis Presley recently sold at auction, according to Fox Business News. The Smith & Wesson model 53 was inlaid with silver and gold designs. The gun was heavily engraved with two silver stars. It was designed with an American flag and eagle below the hammer and marked "1776-1976." A golden Minuteman appeared on one side of the frame and Liberty Bell was on the backstrap. It was delivered to Elvis on November 16, 1976 before he passed away on August 16, 1977. It brought nearly $200,000 at auction.
In news from across the pond, an uncorrected proof copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was recently sold by a British auction house. The proof book published by Bloomsbury Publishing was one of only 200 copies ever printed. The title page misspelled JK Rowling's name as JA Rowling. A primary school purchased it in a warehouse sale for £1 in 1997. The book had a white cover with a yellow band along the center and didn't stand out among the other children's books that featured brighter, more appealing covers. It appeared to have been barely read when the school pulled it from the shelves in 2002 after realizing that the book might have value due to the popularity of Harry Potter. It was temporarily misplaced and school officials feared it may have been discarded until they found it in 2015. The school recently consigned it to auction. It sold for £15,000 (approximately $18,697 U.S.), proving the adage that you can't judge a book by its cover.
We'll be auctioning some books soon, but of the comic variety. Our toy and comic book online auction will begin later this month or in early October. Our next auction after that is scheduled for late October or early November and will include art, sterling silver, and a wide variety of antiques and collectibles. We are still accepting coins and other consignments for that auction. I'll also be teaching my "Evaluating your Antiques" class on Tuesday, October 3rd at Bay Path Adult Evening School in Charlton. Please visit our website www.centralmassauctions.com for links to upcoming events.
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique, Collectibles Auctions and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111).