Spring Mum Propagating and care

 

Spring time is the perfect time to propagate your mums.  Mums are a favorite for most people during the fall, but for fuller and more abundant mums, they need to be multiplied during the springs.  They are very easy to grow and have a very low cost. Due to their low cost many will use them to accent their home during the fall and throw them away after one season.  I hate seeing this.  They will come back every year and only need a little pruning each year.  If you have established mums from last year, all you need to do is to start trimming back the brown stalks that were left behind from the previous season once the first green, new growth has made it's presence known during spring.This will create a well rounded, thicker mum form last years plant.

I finally found the hard to find red mum in my area.  It was very tiny with only two tall stalks sticking up out of the ground.  I was hoping to find at least three of these little red flowers, but of course I am not that lucky.  I did find a cute little white one that had a very tall stalk. So I set off with my plan to propagate them for this fall.

Since I could not get the amount I wanted, I had to create them.  I took the tall white one first since I wanted it in the middle of the red.  I cut the white mum stalk  in half to make them about the same height.  I planted the original mum and roots in the center of the pot I had picked out for this use.  The cutting was around five inches.  I placed one inch of the cutting into the soil beside the original plant with roots. 

Then I gently pulled the two stalks of red mums apart that had grown in the same container.  I planted them and their roots on either side of the white mums in the center.  I grabbed my garden shears and cut each stalk in half giving me two more red stalks of around five inches each.  I placed these in the front and back of the white mums completely surrounding the white with the deep red. 

The first four days you should mist the cut mums with water to keep from drying our.  After the four days, water daily and fertilize once a week.  This will thicken scarce mums you find or will help you make multiple pots for the fall if done in the spring.  They are very easy to root and will give you great reward.  Anyone else out their getting their mums ready for springs?  Any want to do a mum swap this spring?  I have not tried this before, but they should travel well as cuttings or with roots if kept moist.

The trip to those perfect rounded pots of mums you see in photos is trimming.  As your mum grows, trim the few places that get a little out of control before the blooming begins.  This will give you the perfect mushroom shape fall mums.  Think of mums as a child needing a hair cut every once and a while and you will be on you way to a fun fall!