Mums about Mums: Propagation and All that

10 years ago

Hi.

I received two pots of mums from a friend and i tried to keep it alive as possible. The blooms have all dried out and are spent, but ive kept watering it every other day with a rooting hormone and the sides of the stems from the surface to a few inches up have started to show new foliage.

My questions are:

1. The spent blooms are still there while the bottom part of the stem has new leaves growing out. Do i cut the spent blooms? Will pruning the spent blooms or any top portion of the plant help root? What is the effect of "top" pruning to root development?

2. Ive taken some cuttings as well and placed them in vermiculite keeping the medium moist. But the cuttings have turned really brown - like dry brown - leaves to stem. Ive read that it sometimes takes 2-4 weeks till roots develop with the plant looking dead. Should I throw in the towel for this one?

3. In the other pot, the blooms are spent and dried out, new leaves have grown at the base but they have started to turn brown as well. What do I do?

4. When can I apply fertilizer?

Thanks. Your advice will be appreciated as others in the house want me to get rid of them and consider the mums as dead.

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Comments (4)

iris_gal
10 years ago
Cut off the dead blooms. This is called dead heading. The stem they were on is going to die anyway. This is true of all perrenials (as opposed to shrubs). They die back and send up new growth. Ripening blooms drain energy from the plant by producing seed which won't be true to the parent, when it's a hybrid. Side shoots may produce additional bloom.

So the existing blooming stems on your mum have done their job by producing progeny via flowers. And it's ready for a rest. Put it into the garden now. The roots need to get into new soil to continue the mum's growth/rest cycle. If you don't have a garden, buy a 12-inch deep pot for it with new soil (ie. potting mix). The time to fertilize is spring, when new growth starts. In new soil it may not need any fertilizer. Potting mix comes with built in fertilizer.

In spring the new shoots indicate it's alive and well. To prevent the plant from getting too tall, when new growth is 6-8 inches high cut off half of it. This is top pruning. The plant will be bushier as it forces side growth. Again in June you may pinch off the growing tips to force side growth. Exhibitors don't do this as they want the one perfect large bloom and does not matter if the stem is 4 feet tall. They pinch off side growth so the plant's energy goes into the one bloom. As to whether the root mass is bigger on top pruned versus non top pruned, I don't know.

If the cuttings have turned completly brown they are goners. Cuttings need to have shade and humidity. The growth hormone is called 'auxin' if you want to research. I strip the mum cutting only of its lower leaves and push into firm shady soil about an inch, water thoroughly and put a jar over it to create its own little greenhouse. The soil must be in firm contact. Then leave it alone for weeks. Roots form at buried leaf nodes. Most hobbyists root cuttings from spring growth because the growing tip is full of auxins, hence greater success.

If after 2 weeks your cuttings are all brown, tug gently. They will come out of the soil easily if dead. They will look like dead twigs! If your parent plant is still looking green (now), you may be able to detach a stem with some root on it.

One more thing. Professionals use a chemical spray to keep mums short and uniform. How this affects rooting a cutting I am not sure. About 8 years ago I could not get a cutting to root and the 4-inch (pot) mum would not establish in the garden either. Just died! I read there was a chemical being used to prevent propagation of stems. Maybe someone knows if this was rumor or fact.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
10 years ago
ive kept watering it every other day with a rooting hormone

==>> i dont know what this means.. on an intact plant ..

why???

rooting mum.. is about the easiest thing in the world...

you can do a 3 inch cutting in a glass of water ..

google: PROPAGATION OF MUMS ...

ken
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MANY commercial mums are NOT hardy .... ergo .. as Linda noted ... they do NOT come back after winter ... if you cut a piece of mum .. with two sets of leaves .... and strip the bottom set .... and put them in a glass of water ... or in damp potting media.. and cover with a baggie .... they will root relatively fast ... i am sure if you put PROPAGATING MUMS into a search engine.. you will get millions of hits ... proper pruning of a single stalk plant ... requires that you shear it back about 3 times a season ... to create the bush we all love ... rather than a one flower stalk ... every time you do this... you can root what you cut off ... YOU SHOULD TRY THIS RIGHT NOW WITH ANY MUMS YOU HAVE.. JUST TO EXPERIMENT .... but you might not know if yours is hardy ... many years back ... i MAIL ORDERED about 25 varieties for spring delivery ..... they were under a buck each ... YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY THIS ... but i cant remember the name of the place ... maybe Huff's .... but they appear to be out of business ... good luck ken
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I used to grow them commercially, but haven't done so in about two years. Yes, they can be rejuvenated. Like with so many other perennials, the crown eventually becomes woody and often the stems coming from them will splay out revealing the dead and woody material in the center of the clump. If you have a non-patented variety, you can easily start cuttings from them. If you don't want to bother with that, you can lay one branch of them down and French layer it with soil over it where it should easily root along the stem. Next spring, just sever it from the mother plant and plant it elsewhere. If you are lucky enough to have had a plant who has developed a multi-stemmed clump, with roots you can sever and divide, just do it. I have found the newer varieties are bred to have multiple, smaller blooms. They cover the foliage like a carpet and are lovely, but they also tend to splay out when they bloom just from the weight of the blooms and can look unthrifty. Proper pinching can help them have stem strong enough to hold them in place. The most important thing in overwintering a mum is to make sure its roots don't rot. That's why sandy soil is sometimes an advantage. But, I overwinter mine in clay soil, usually without ammending it. I tend to plant mine on a slope so that when the soil is saturated, it eventually drains downward and the roots of the mums aren't sitting in a pool at the bottom of it all.
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keepingon
10 years ago
You do not need to water an already rooted and potted plant with rooting hormone. And every other day is way too much to water; you will drown it.

Cut off bloom stalks, plant it outside and it will either rest until spring or put out new shoots from below ground. These are the shoots from which you will take your cuttings. Go online for full instructions. Good luck.
rusty_blackhaw
10 years ago
The original poster says he's in zone 11, so probably he can put the viable-looking plant outdoors (in filtered light/shade at first).

Whether or not whatever type of mum he has will do well in his climate is another question.

And yes, cuttings that turn brown and look dead are dead about 99,999999999% of the time. Toss 'em.

Mums about Mums: Propagation and All that

Comments (4)

iris_gal

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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