Chrysanthemums from a variety of harvest colors, including yellow, orange, rust, white, and red, are now available for purchase and enjoy in nurseries, greenhouses, and retail stores.
These beautiful plants adorn balconies, porches, and ornamental displays around businesses and homes to show off their spring splendor.
Here are some simple shopping, care and garden chrysanthemums tips for homeowners to enhance the life of these plants in the fall and beyond.
- When choosing pot chrysanthemums, check for disease-free and insect-free plants to stay away from healthy plants. Look at the roots, stems and leaves of plants.
- Look for plants with equally balanced, healthy foliage. Avoid picking unbalanced leaves, broken or weak stems.
- Vegetable chrysanthemums can be purchased in a variety of pot sizes, allowing customers to choose different plant sizes to suit their own budget and creative designs.
- Chrysanthemums can be planted in a variety of jewelry containers. Remember to choose containers with drainage holes as chrysanthemums require well-drained clay media to remove rotten roots.
- It is also important to choose a container that is the size of the plant or collection of plants in the container. Before planting, open the root system of the plant to release it with your fingers or a clean knife. Do not bury the plant more than the soil line in the container. Gently water under the plants until the water runs out of the containers.
- Chrysanthemums can also be kept in their containers, and if the container is too large for plants or placed in a large container, a large handle can be placed in a large container to achieve the desired decorative effect. Materials can be placed on the bottom of the large container like stones, so that the smaller container stands upright on top of the propane. To achieve the desired effect of jewelry, jewelry, bananas or other materials can be placed around the handle.
- Packed chrysanthemums can be organized or assembled to create different color combinations with other fall decorations. These preparations should be kept in the sun for at least six hours to prevent chrysanthemums from growing and spreading too much.
- When planting chrysanthemums in high beds or traditional underground beds, keep in mind that these plants need at least six hours of sunlight. Before you put it in the bed, remove it from the container and separate it with your fingers or a clean knife. Do not dig deeper than the soil line in the first container.
- As the flowers begin to die, gently remove them with your fingers or a clean, sharp knife to encourage rejuvenation. Chrysanthemums can be fertilized with water-soluble fertilizers, and although they fall, they follow fertilizer directions to grow plants.
- To help protect plants from winter damage, chrysanthemums can be pruned with twigs or cut leaves. The chrysanthemums in containers may not survive the winter, but they can be brought indoors for winter and kept under the growing lights.
For more information on chrysanthemum care, please call (308) 532-2638, or email dlott2@unl.edu to contact Nebraska Extension Horticulture Instructor David Lot.
David Lot is a professor of horticulture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension in North Plates, Nebraska.
Extension is part of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska in partnership with the States and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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