Root Division Propagation: Chrysanthemums

When I purchased my first mums in January, it looked like picture 1: fairly small but full of white and yellow flowers.  But with direct sun, frequent soap spraying, proper fertilization, good drainage and regular water (whew!), it grew big and leafy as in picture 2.  It's not quite my ultimate goal since I wanted it to flower again, but hey I've been pretty happy with how far it has grown.


With the growth, I figured it was time to propagate my mums. I wasn't sure if I wanted to propagate it via cutting since it's not an herb so it'd probably be difficult to grow it like that.  I did some research and found a previously unbeknown method called root division.   It seemed simple enough.  I'm supposed to dig up the plant, separate stems and plant each one as a new plant.  The condition is that each stem must have roots attached.

And that's what I did.  If you look at pictures 3-5, you'd see the 3-way split of my original mums.  I'm guessing I will see some shock in the plants this week since I recall the shock my original mums had when I first transplanted it into a bigger pot.  But then again, I'm a better gardener now. ;-)

Will each new plant survive and thrive?  We'll all know a month from now.  Watch out for it.

If you'd like to review my mums chronicle, check out my past posts:  a week after purchasing my mums, they looked burned; my mums as they're struggling; my mums alive but bare; and my mums healthy again.

---