These days we generally go out and buy mums already in bloom. But years ago there wasn’t such a good plentiful supply of such plants. If you wanted blooming mums, you had to grow them yourself. It was common practice to take a cutting of a chrysanthemum you already had or a cutting of a friend’s plant and start your own plants. Last fall I dug up a couple pieces of a friend’s golden yellow mum and transplanted them to my garden. Only one survived. Always being a believer in ‘two is better than one’, I took three cuttings and rooted them. They took off quickly and grew in 4″ pots until mid summer when I transplanted them to larger pots. With the addition of some time release fertilizer and regular watering by summer’s end they were 24″ tall! Always leery of chipmunk damage and drying out I left them in pots until mid-late October when I planted one and left one in the large container and one was still in its original 4″ pot. And there you have it – free mums. And they are beautiful. Just for insurance against a harsh winter I’m putting them in the garage which is around 42 degrees. – Sandy