HelpfulGardener.com

Hello all!

Just wondering if anyone here grows and sells chrysanthemums. I grew about 15 last year (First time Trying) and they did alright. Some I should have put more than one plant in the pot and others were very nice. I wanted to get more involved in growing and selling them, and just wanted to see if anyone has any advice! Another thing is where is the best place to buy the plants in bulk? Last year I just got some very small rooted cuttings from a local greenhouse for $2 a piece...Which wouldn't be very profitable in the long run. Any and all help would be appreciated!

If you want to grow lots for sale, you probably want to get in to propagating your own. Mums can be started from seed. If you allow a few of your blooms to go to seed, you can collect your own seed - but if your mums are a hybrid variety, the plants you grow from the seed will not be identical to the parent. You can buy chrysanthemum seed. You can also divide your plants to make more and take your own cuttings from your own plants.

https://www.jungseed.com/dc.asp?c=273

I've done a couple things with mums but both involved the sale of cut flowers, not the plants. Are sales like that possible for you, RKD'?

This isn't the best place for growing tall mums outdoors (best choice for cut flowers). First, only hardy varieties will survive the winters but also, it takes an early-flowering choice or hard frosts show up about the time of flowering . Nevertheless, there are varieties that fit within our season and can be started from seed, indoors. They produced a crop the first year and came on like gangbusters after that.

You can also hit the retail outlets the week after Memorial Day. There are no immediate flower holidays and those plants will be at giveaway prices . Cut the flowers off them and get the plants into the ground. In a couple months, they will be blooming their fool heads off! Be sure you have selected for fall colors but don't expect the plants to be back in the spring.

Cuttings? Yeah. Should work

Steve

Where I am anyway (zone 6), mums that are planted in the fall when all the big box stores are full of potted mums in full bloom, will not come back in the spring. However, mums that are planted in spring, kept watered, and are well established by fall, usually will make it through the winter and come back the following spring.