Purple Pot-Mum with 130+ Flowers
I have grown a lot of Chrysanthemums in pots this year. Currently they are showing their true colours in an Autumn blaze of glory.
Tips for Cheap Chrysanthemums
- I bought a cheap supermarket multi pack early in the year (6 for 99p). I nipped out the growing heads and in some cases the flowers that were already showing. I potted them up individually in the cold greenhouse, then put them individually in large outdoor pots at the end of June. They were of a variety prone to self branch so I only needed to stop them blooming too early by pinching out odd flowers. They are now 10 times the size the supermarket expected.
- Chrysanthemums root well from cuttings and some of my stock were from the pinching out. It is probably better to save the root stock this back-end and take cuttings as they start to grow in early spring.
- Pot Mums grown by nurseries for indoor flowering have usually been treated with chemicals to ‘force’ the flowering. I have found them unsuitable for future propagation as they become very leggy.
- I fertilised with a general fertiliser until August when I moved on to Tomato fertiliser to encourage more flowers.
- Some darker purple varieties have tended to break stems when I brushed past or the rain was too heavy.
Ten Pot mum tips and pictures of Orange semi-double Pot mums can be seen here
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