How to Grow Cascading Mums

Select the chrysanthemums to be the source of the stem cuttings for growing cascading mums. Raise them indoors as potted plants. Keep them continuously exposed to light from a 60-watt bulb in the fall and winter. The uninterrupted brightness prevents the plants from producing flower buds, making them a good source of propagation cuttings.

Blend 1 part sand and 1 part peat moss. Add it to a flat in the first half of February. Moisten that rooting medium.

Take 4-inch cuttings from the potted chrystanthemums. Plant them 1 inch deep into the rooting mix you prepared.

Water the cuttings at planting. Continue to maintain the stems and sand mix moist until rooting occurs in two to three weeks. Place the flat in a clear plastic bag to slow water evaporation. If the bag collapses on the cuttings, insert stakes in the soil to hold it up.

Transplant the cuttings when their roots are ½ inch to 1 inch long. Move them to individual 4-inch pots filled with potting soil.

Grow the young chrysanthemums under continuous light for the next six weeks. The practice promotes vegetative growth while inhibiting flower production.

Feed the plants an all-purpose soluble fertilizer according to the rates and frequency listed on the product label.

Fill 10-inch planters with a blend of 1 part perlite and 1 part peat moss. You need one pot for every three chrysanthemums.

Transplant three mums per pot when they grow 1 foot tall. Prune the top 2 inches off each plant.

Turn off the supplemental light when daylight begins to last longer than 12 hours. Take the potted mums to the base of the support they will be cascading over.

Tie the mums' stem tips to the wires that form the frame or to fence posts. Use nursery tape, twist ties or string to train the branches to develop in the direction you want.

Prune the mums' top 2 inches for every 4 inches of new stem growth after you start training them on the support. Adjust the point at which the stems are tied as they gain length to maintain the tips and lateral branches attached to the frame. Suspend tip pruning in late summer to allow the plant to set flower buds for fall blooming.