Community Chat

[ID2]

Yuck. I really hate mums! They are ugly and useless. Another reminder of the long hard winter ahead. 

[Beacon girl]

Wow! Speechless!

[Karie2022]

I don't believe all mums are perennials; they have to say Hardy or Garden Mums...they also need to be planted in the ground before the first frost.  I did this one year and they come up every year, just beautiful.

[bonnielu]

Just bought perhaps more than I needed.  But got a good price and they are so pretty.  I live in Maryland basically in the woods.  They are in pots.  Are they meant to be planted in the ground. Do they come up every year in pots? In the ground?

[haddon9]

I just decorate them on my porch in pots.  They look festive through the fall season.

One time many years aog we did plant them.  The follwing year half had died which left big gaps in my garden and the other half grew to be hugh bushes!  LOL! 

No more planting mums for me.  The are cheap enough to use for temporary decor.

[AuntG]

Our climate is pretty cold (near the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field) so I've never brought mine in over winter. I buy pretty ones in September at a garden center. Then we enjoy them for at least eight weeks and throw them out once they freeze. Mums are pretty when displayed with pumpkins and scarecrows but they do stink.

[Lucky Charm]

I found the secret with Mums is, if planted in the ground, not all day hot sun, but maybe morning sun or shaded late afternoon sun. 

All thru summer, you have to pinch back the buds--get rid of them.  If they bloom too soon, the flowers look *faded* they aren't as vibrant as they were when you bought them.

I see where people plant them in the ground and don't pinch back and you have huge mounds of blah colored flowers.  Not pretty.

[taquito]

Buy hardy mums at plant nurseries in the spring and plant them then.  They have time to establish their roots that way.  It worked for me in zone 5, but they were short-lived for just a few years. 

[ScrapHappy]

I've planted large mum's (from Costco) in the 2 very large pots on either side of my front door steps and have just kept them (smaller ones) in the pots I bought them in and they just don't last.  I ilve in GA and mums have been out for about 3 weeks.  I've bought them early and I've bought them a little later, but they don't last long and sometimes even dead by the time Halloween rolls around.  I don't expect them to be around for Thanksgiving.  I do know how to take care of plants but I think the pounding sun I get all day in front of my house it too hard on them.  

[loveschocolate]

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@taquito wrote:

Buy hardy mums at plant nurseries in the spring and plant them then.  They have time to establish their roots that way.  It worked for me in zone 5, but they were short-lived for just a few years. 

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^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

Last fall I bought hardy mums in pots in the fall, kept them alive throughout the winter and planted them in the ground this past spring. Trimmed them back during the summer, and they are blooming right now. They do recommend you buy in the spring and plant them in the ground at that time.