Nothing says autumn like chrysanthemums!  Their huge mounds of brilliant color can take your breath away, and the good news is they are really easy to grow.  You can start with a little tiny piece and in a couple of years have huge mounds that you can spread around your yard and share with your friends.

Chrysanthemums are tough and very forgiving but there are some important things you need to do in order to get great fall blooms. They are dividing and pruning.

Division

Chrysanthemums multiply quickly.  If the clump gets too big they will not stand upright.  The clump will split and fall over.  In the early spring when they are just coming up they should be divided so that the clump is no bigger than a dinner plate.  If you want a very large display it will work better to have several small clumps rather than one big one.

In the following video, I will show you how to divide and transplant your chrysanthemum.

• Side note – If your ground is hard and dry don’t try to work with it like that- it will make you hate gardening.  Do your digging after you have watered. If it is hard put some water on it and come back the next day.

Pruning

If chrysanthemums are allowed to bloom early in the summer they will have very spotty, sporadic bloom and will not give you beautiful fall mounds.  About the end of May or beginning of June, you will want to prune them.  You might see some buds forming but you don’t want them to start blooming yet.  Just get a pair of scissors and give your plant a haircut.  Cut off about 3 inches over the whole plant.  I usually repeat this about the end of July.

I will show you how I do it in the next video.

I have great results with my chrysanthemums each year by remembering these 2 things:

• Keep the clumps small.
• Don’t allow them to bloom too early.

Good luck! and Happy Gardening!