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Beautiful Viking. What is the darkest purple bloom in the second photo and the lavender just above it, if you know?

Yes I know all my babies. The deep purple is Thomas Edison, and the one above is Origon Reign. Glad you like them. I have started taking cuttings to grow under lights this winter. I can't leave them alone.

Well taking cuttings etc, you've got a hobby to keep you off the streets year round :)

I was afraid you'd say Thomas Alva Edison. I tried that gorgeous flower a few years back and thought I'd have to view the bloom from the hereafter. Way too slow for me. Glad it works so very well for you though! They are beautiful together.

The wife loves it. One of my neighbors has me growing her a plant of it for her garden next year. So I love it. Now I must ask if you like the plant why don't you try to get it going sooner? So that it blooms sooner.

That's a fair question vikingcraftsman, and my answer would be that I'm way too busy with tubers in April, not interested in cuttings, and instead, will sort out what other dark purple variety can be plopped in the ground in our climate and give me some similarly handsome flowers by August, instead of October.

I can always try to start them a bit early, but it's really a time factor juggling family, work, home etc etc. Plus I am sick to death of tubers by January. Don't want to see one until April. Maybe when I retire, I'll dabble more in early starts and such.

I do understand. I forget some times that I have retired and others still have the daily work to go to. After spending 45 minutes to get ready for work another hour to get to work and an hour to get home my garden used to suffer. After the flight 800 disaster I had to work 16 hours a day seven days a week for over a two month period. My garden,lawn and trees all died.

Viking,

You mentioned taking cuttings now to keep under lights, presumably over winter.

My plan was to start my pot tubers in January. So what do you get by starting cuttings now? I would think they wouldn't survive that long.

Cheers,
Russ

Russ time will tell. I have given my neighbor some cuttings also. We are going to test our green thumbs. If I am able to do this I will be able to come out the other end with well over 400 plants. I have orders from my neighbors for five plants already. They expect to have blooming plants by the lastest the end of May. I started my tubers in January last year and put out in the poly house a couple of plants over two foot tall. They had blooms on them by the first of May.

So, to be clear, you've started some cuttings now in pots? You'll bring them in before the frost and continue them inside under lights.

Using averages from my "Cutting to Bloom" times, cuttings taken today should be full size and blooming around the end of January. That would mean that by the end of May they'd be the equivalent size of something typical in late September. IOWs, they'll be huge bushes while inside...;-] Now multiply that by 400 and ask yourself where you're going to keep them.

And my numbers are based on not giving my cuttings enough lumens while they were under lights. I figure I should be able to knock at least 30 days off the average 155 days it took to go from cutting to bloom by simply using T5's and having them closer to the cuttings/tuber sprouts.

Perhaps I'm completely misunderstanding...if so, my apologies. If not, this is going to be an extremely interesting experiment.

I've been wondering just how long I could keep a plant blooming. Could I bring it in in the fall and keep it blooming through winter?

Cheers,
Russ

Russ if things get too big I will take cuttings from them and keep the cycle going. I have at presant the ability to use 5 four foot sections with shop lights. If I wanted to I could make more spaces. So we will all see what happens every month. Some one from a very warm climate should tell us how long they can keep a plant in green stage.