You can buy the popular autumn flowers already blooming or grow them yourself. In spring, chrysanthemums are often available as young plants, but they still require particularly intensive care. You can find out what you should pay attention to when caring for young chrysanthemum plants in the following article.
How do I properly care for young chrysanthemum plants?
When caring for young chrysanthemum plants, you should place them in nutrient-poor potting soil, water them regularly and provide a bright, warm environment. After the Ice Saints, they can slowly be acclimated outdoors, but can only be planted out in their second year.
Grow young plants yourself
If you enjoy growing young plants yourself, you should have good success with chrysanthemums quite quickly. The plant can be propagated quite easily via top cuttings or by root division, but can also be grown from seeds. Please note that chrysanthemums are cold germinators and should therefore be stratified before sowing. The best time to take cuttings is early summer. Sowing takes place either in autumn or, if you prefer the chrysanthemums, from February.
Repotting young chrysanthemums
Rooting the cuttings or growing seedlings is best done in nutrient-poor potting soil. However, the young plants should be transferred to a humus-rich substrate as quickly as possible.
- Choose a pot with a drainage hole at the bottom.
- Mix two parts potting soil and one part sand.
- At the bottom of the pot there is a drainage layer made of potsherds or something similar.
- Fill the substrate on top.
- Carefully move the young plant.
- Press the substrate well.
- Water the seedling carefully, preferably with a spray bottle (€7.00 on Amazon).
- Provide “tense air”, for example with perforated foil.
- Ventilate several times a day to prevent mold infestation.
The seedling feels comfortable in a bright and warm location, but without direct sunlight.
Do not plant chrysanthemums until the second year of growth
You can put the pots with the young chrysanthemum plants outside for an hour at a time from mid to late May - after the Ice Saints - to slowly get the plants used to it. However, planting out should only take place in the second year - if it is a perennial variety; annuals can of course be planted straight away in the garden - as the young chrysanthemums must first be hardened off. They usually only develop the robustness necessary for overwintering outdoors in the second year. In addition, only winter-hardy varieties should be planted.
Tip
If you occasionally deadhead the young chrysanthemums - i.e. pinch off the shoot tips - the plant will be encouraged to grow more branched and therefore bushier. Regular pruning of faded plant parts has the same effect.
