Grow Your Own Chrysanthemums With This Clever Cutting Hack

Just like that pumpkin spice flavor you can't get away from, homes adorned with garden mums are a sure sign that autumn is on the way. But if you'd rather save your hard-earned pay for delicious lattes and scrumptious scones, you can grow your own colorful autumn flowers from a bouquet of grocery store chrysanthemums. You won't even have to sacrifice the blooms — just use the bottom section of the stems to grow new plants from cuttings.

Propagating mums from cuttings is actually a really simple and reliable way to get new plants. Plus, if you choose your bouquet carefully, those homegrown chrysanthemums can potentially stay alive year-round. For this springtime propagation project, you'll need nursery pots, soil, and a pair of scissors or garden snips in addition to the bouquet of mums — before you know it, you'll have your own homegrown fall flower display.

To use this clever hack, gardeners should take cuttings that are a few inches long from the lower part of the stem. Make sure that your cutting includes two leaf nodes. Remove any lower leaves, and apply rooting hormone to the ends of the cuttings for the best results. Then, insert the cuttings into nursery pots that contain a sterile growing medium such as coco peat. Keep the growing medium moist, and situate the pots in indirect bright light or shade until they are rooted, which should take around four weeks.

Once the cuttings are rooted, be sure to transition these new plants into full sun – lack of sunlight is a common mistake gardeners make with their mums. Hardy garden mums, such as those with daisy-like blooms, can grow as perennials in container gardens or planted directly in flower beds. Meanwhile nonhardy types, like those with spider flowers, will need greenhouse-like conditions to survive cold winters — or they can be grown as annuals. Either way, be sure to plant them alongside good chrysanthemum garden companion plants, such as asters. Don't expect your new garden mums to flower until the days grow shorter in fall. If they fail to produce flowers at this point, inspect your yard. A bright security light may be preventing them from getting the number of dark hours needed to promote flowering.