Mums are a fall-favorite flower, but they can be incredibly needy. Some sellers recommend watering a new pot of mums with a full gallon of water every day for the first week, then watering every other day thereafter. Other resources think mums should be watered whenever it’s required, meaning you should be checking the moisture content of their soil multiple times per day. And since container gardens naturally need more water than plants in your ground, you could wind up watering mums several times per day. However, this latest TikTok hack provides a great way to flood your mum’s roots with the necessary water and nutrients where they are most needed, thus ensuring beautiful blooms all season long.
Short for “chrysanthemum,” mums are gorgeous, colorful bloomers. And unlike so many other flowers, mums reach peak interest as the cooler temperatures of fall start to take hold. Known for their reds and golds that are emblematic of the season, they’ve become a sort of autumnal calling card, symbolizing eternal happiness. To keep that happiness in your container garden, however, it’s important to make sure your mums are kept in tip-top shape.
Dunk your mums
@jodie.thedesigntwins
Want your mums to last through the season? Follow these simple tips! 1. Soak your mums in a bucket of water when you get home for about 30 min-1 hour. Mums soak up water from their roots so this will ensure they are hydrated! 2. Check your mums regularly by picking them up. If they are light to the touch this means that they don’t have much water left in the pot. It’s time to soak again. 💦One year I was determined to keep my mums alive and I tried watering every single day! But watering from the top doesn’t really work because most of the water just runs straight through the pot (have you noticed?) not giving the roots time to soak up the water they need. Even my daily watering wasn’t enough to keep my mums alive. 😳 Soaking is the trick! And it’s so much easier than daily watering. You shouldn’t have to soak except for a few times… depending on how much sun and heat you have in your climate.👌 Good luck 🍀🤞 #flowertips #fallflowers #fallinspo #fallmums #hometips #fallfrontporch
♬ original sound – Jodie Kammerer
Mums in containers dry out especially quickly. One of the reasons for this is that the roots of the plant are packed into the bottom of the pot. These packed roots and soil don’t absorb water quickly enough to saturate them before the water drains out the bottom of their container. But since mums are fed from the roots up, it becomes almost impossible for the water to get where it’s needed. It’s almost as if you need to soak the entire root system in order to give your mums a fighting chance. Well, that’s exactly what this TikTok trick advises.
When you bring your potted mums home, carefully place them, pot and all, into a 5-gallon paint bucket full of water. Of course, be sure their container has drainage holes in the bottom so the water can get in there. Leave them in the water for 30-60 minutes, thoroughly hydrating and saturating the soil and the entire root system. From this point on, regular watering will simply augment the saturation that’s already occurred, rather than impossibly trying to ramp up to it, maintaining the vibrant beauty of your flowers for months.
