Rooting Mums

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Mum starts can be dusted with root hormone and added to a garden spot to start new plants.

Mum starts can be dusted with root hormone and added to a garden spot to start new plants.

Rooting Mums

Fall must right around the corner because chrysanthemums plants are popping up all over my home town.

The pretty tiny flowers add fall color to a landscape from different tones of yellows to orange, red, white and burgundy. Mums are also being appreciated as garden flowers because they deter bugs. Most of the "natural" bug sprays on the market are made with mum extract so I am going to add a few more mums around my garden to keep bugs at bay.

How to Make New Mums

You can either collect cuttings from your mums or pick up pieces that have been knocked off existing plants.

I was moving a couple of mums and had several pieces that broke off. I made a fresh cut on the bottom, made sure there was one node where leaves were attached; removed the leaves and placed them in water until I could get them into the garden.

Rooting hormone is a staple in my garden supplies, just don't reuse.

Rooting hormone is a staple in my garden supplies, just don't reuse.

Rooting Hormone

One of my garden supply staples is rooting hormone. It helps plants develop roots in soil and is available at most garden and nursery centers.

Pour a little root hormone into a separate container. Dip the mum cutting in water, then dip in root hormone.

I save my root hormone in a little container so that I have it handy to use.

Do not pour root hormone back into original container or you may contaminate the powder.

Make a small hole in soil and insert the root hormone-covered mum cutting.

Make a small hole in soil and insert the root hormone-covered mum cutting.

Place Root Hormone-Covered Start in Soil

Once you have the root covered in root hormone, make a hole in moist soil. Carefully add the root hormone-covered plant in hole and cover.

If soil isn't moist, add water and allow to get moist before you add the plant start.

Cover plant start with moist soil and wait several days for roots to form.

Cover plant start with moist soil and wait several days for roots to form.

Now Wait

Now comes the hard part, waiting. Don't peek or you will dislodge the root hormone from the plant.

I wait a month before I gently tug on the start. If it resists, congratulations you have roots started.

If if comes out of the ground, it didn't take.

The good news with mums is, they are relatively easy to root so it's worth the effort.

Have you tried to root mum starts?

Charlotte