Garden

[Mom2Dogs]

@MrsCat21    Not sure, water is important....I would guess several weeks.  I purchased new mums about 3 weeks ago...still blooming.

[Carmie]

Some mums will rebloom.  They bloom in the spring and again in the fall.

Plant them in your garden and they will renloom for years.

[Sooner]

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@KathyM23 wrote:

@Sooner   We replant ours as We have a lot of flowers and all the color in our yard makes me happy.  By replanting the mums we have a yard full of blooming color 3 seasons without spending $8-10 per plant  for new mums.  We also do buy new mums every year too (this fall 11 and those in pots will get replanted for next year )  We have 7 replants from last year so we now have 18 blooming mums.

DH also divides the Asters and they are doing great this year.  And I bought some Fall Pansies.  Some of the summer annuals are still doing good, lots of color in the yard.  So we are good until late November; then snow, Christmas lights and decor.

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@KathyM23  Nope!  That was more at the last house.  Thankfully at this stage of life we don't have all those beds to worry about.  But we never replanted the mums anyway, they were just for the front porch and walkway.  

[ValuSkr]

Most people just discard them after the season.  It seems like a waste, but if they don't have garden space, or sufficiently sunny locations, what are they supposed to do.  I stopped buying them for another reason - they were expensive deer food.

[PINKdogWOOD]

While they may not last too long, buy your mums with buds not open yet. This way you can watch them slowly open to their own lovliness at your home in your yard. We bought two new yellow ones at lowe's (they have TONS of mums right now) two days ago. They're lovely in the sun.

We have one that we've had for a month now, an orange one that's been in bloom for a month now.

[amyb]

I never buy mums for fall...they are my least favorite of flowers and they pass relatively quickly and look horrble and ready to toss...so they also don't seem like a good value for fall decorating. I feel like everyone just defaults to them but they just look average and blah to me...though some people can cluster them with pumpkins, etc, and make them look nice. And yes, you can plant them in ground for mums next year. I'm on a second floor condo so I don't go that route. (Though we often will plant perennials & bulbs, that have passed, on our condo community grounds, but we're pretty set on that now.)

I recently went to my local nursery who get such a variety of fall plantings, some annuals some perennials...and had so many suggestions besides mums for fall. 

I was refreshing my window box which I'd taken a few passed plants out of. I bought Snapdragons which they told me tolerate the cool temps. I got two different foliage, colorful leafy plants to offset the other flowers. I got some deep vibrant red/orange Million Bells, and another plant they told me tolerate the fall temps well and is a perennial...it has deep green/burgundy leaves with little purple (forget me not looking) flowers on it. It all looks beautiful, fall, and not a mum in the bunch.

They also suggested marigolds (which I may go back this week to buy some for other smaller pots I have outside), and of course they also have pansies in fall colors...both those withstand cooler, fall temps.

So @MrsCat21 you don't have to default to mums. There are other beautiful fall flowering and foliage plants to plant for fall! Hope that helps.

If you're curious, I can look up what that small purple flower plant is...I saved the info stick.

Maybe I can post a pic...

[GoneButNotForgotten]

I'm out of action due to a real bad case of kidney sepsis last spring and I'm still not over it (lots of complications). I miss working in the yard so much. I can't wait till spring so I can go out and get dirty! 

[Kabella]

@MrsCat21  It depends on your climate. If you deadhead them (cut of the spent bloom down to the stem) they will re-bloom until you get a freeze. 

[Lucky Charm]

First year I didn't buy mums in probably 40 years. They're pretty till they're not. Replanted in ground and they get too big and it seems the color isn't as vibrant.