Chrysanthemums are available cheaply in every supermarket and garden center. Nevertheless, propagating existing plants can be worthwhile - if only because it's fun to grow them yourself. However, at least with vegetative propagation you know what you are going to get. Ultimately, the offshoots or cuttings are always a genetic copy of the parent plant. For this reason, you should only take cuttings from he althy and strong parent plants.
How to propagate chrysanthemums correctly?
Chrysanthemums can be propagated by top cuttings or by dividing bushes. Cuttings are cut in May and planted in potting soil. Older bushes are divided in spring and the divided pieces are planted in the desired location.
Propagation by head cuttings
Chrysanthemums are particularly easy to propagate using cuttings. These are cut off from the mother plant in May so that they have enough time to root throughout the growing season. Only choose shoots that are about 10 to 15 centimeters long without flower buds, as these would only unnecessarily rob the young plant of strength. Alternatively, you can also cut stems that have already bloomed in autumn, remove anything that has faded or withered and use the shoot as a cutting. However, since these cuttings do not root reliably, you should cut as many as possible.
Planting chrysanthemum cuttings
Chrysanthemum cuttings root very reliably both in a glass of water and in potting soil.
- Cut stems about 10 to 15 centimeters long from the mother plant.
- Cut as far down as possible.
- The interface should be slanted, this makes it easier for the plant to absorb water.
- Remove all but the top two leaves.
- Dip the cut site in a rooting powder.
- Plant the cuttings in a pot with low-nutrient potting or herb soil.
- Place the pot in a bright and warm, but not in full sun location.
- Keep the substrate evenly moist.
- Put a mason jar, a cut-off plastic bottle or a freezer bag over the young plants.
- These act as a kind of mini greenhouse.
- In this case, don't forget to ventilate daily.
Chrysanthemums root after about four weeks.
Share chrysanthemum bush
Older chrysanthemum bushes can be easily divided and propagated and rejuvenated in this way. Division should be carried out in spring if possible, but only when late frosts are no longer expected. Dig up the plant as completely as possible and pierce the rhizome into several pieces in suitable places with a spade or ax. How many new chrysanthemums ultimately emerge from a plant depends on the size of the rootstock. The individual chrysanthemum pieces are immediately planted in the new location.
Tips & Tricks
In addition to the vegetative propagation described, you can of course also sow chrysanthemums. Chrysanthemums are cold germinators that are stratified before sowing - i.e. H. should be kept in the fridge for a while. You can grow the new plants on the windowsill from February or sow them directly outdoors from around mid-April.
