"stephen" wrote in message
oups.com...
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.,

http://www.rhs.org.uk/learning/publi...urnals_garden_
1198_saga.asp)
it is not clear for me why a Japanese chrysanthemum wouldn't grow from
seeds also. Can someone enlighten me on this issue?

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.