I just bought 4 HUGE (5 gallon) pots of Garden Mums. I couldn't resist - they are gorgeous and were only $16. I usually buy 1 as decoration for a wooden wagon we have out back. I would like to put these in the ground though. Can I do that? It is cold cold cold today and tomorrow but will start warming up next week with more season al temps. If I can still put them in the ground should I do it while it is cold or wait until next week with warner temps? Also the one I put on the wagon - how late do you think I can keep that before planting? Or can I overwinter it somehow in the pot and plant in spring? Thanks!
Garden Mums?
I put my mums in and they came back in the spring of all things... but then the summer heat just killed them.
That's interesting! Maybe due to warm TX weather? I think I will wait until Monday to put them in the ground knowing they may or may not make it. Everything I have read since posting this is very back and forth as to whether or not they will come back. My neigbore 2 doors down has GORGEOUS ones that come back eveyr year so I know it can happen :)
I have garden mums that originated from two 2 inch pots my mother gave me 16 years ago. I routinely divide them and move them and transplant them, and they come back every year for me. The worst that happened is one year we had a week of hard freezes without any snow cover and I lost a section of them. I still have too many. Plant them, mulch them, keep them watered until the ground freezes because they're new, They'll come back in the spring, the green part of the plant will slowly grow through the summer and come fall, buds and flowers. Garden mums are very hardy.
My mums that I have put in the ground have now produced tons of plants by division!!
Lisa
Thats what I do too garden6.....this way they don't flop over...get nice and bushy...with tons of flowers..!!
Go ahead and get them in the ground. These plants are hardy, and they can virtually take just about anything. I have some that have come back for me for 12 years. We put them in the year we built a new house, and they are still growing great guns. Pinching them back until about the last of July will make them bushier. Don't worry about hurting them, they will thrive.
I am planning of growing them commercially next year, so they have to be pretty indistructive!!
I've never grown mums -- I thought they were short-lived. Is "garden mum" a particular cultivar? Are all of them long lived?
Happy, I buy my mums from a garden center or a nursery, look for ones that are mostly closed buds as soon as they are available Plant in a sunny location shortly thereafter to encourage root growth before a hard freeze. When the stems die, cut them off to the ground, then mulch. In the spring, when you see the leaves emerging , open the mulch around the crown. In mid summer, I shear the mums about 1/3rd of the growth, makes them more bushier. Then come autumn, enjoy the blooms galore. Not all mums are hardy, look for the Chrysanthemum, which has been renamed as dedranthema x grandiflora. But they are the mums usally sold at Walmart, Lowe's.Home Depots" garden centers or a nursery. Just my little red cent and I'm sure they are others who can give you more insights as well. That's the beauty of DG! ;0)
I planted yellow mums -- 10c discounts -- last fall, just to see what happened, and they came back like mad weeds! I whacked them off mid summer, only because I got a little weedeater happy, and they are wonderful this fall. So this year I got a bunch more in more than one color, and they have really brightened up some dreary fall spots in my new beds.
I did figure out that HERE I plant the brightest colors in the farthest corners, because the dark colors tend to "vanish" against all the mulch and over cast days. So whites and yellows in the back beds, and marroon and burnt orange in the near beds.
I planted yellow mums -- 10c discounts -- last fall, just to see what happened, and they came back like mad weeds! I whacked them off mid summer, only because I got a little weedeater happy, and they are wonderful this fall. So this year I got a bunch more in more than one color, and they have really brightened up some dreary fall spots in my new beds.
I did figure out that HERE I plant the brightest colors in the farthest corners, because the dark colors tend to "vanish" against all the mulch and over cast days. So whites and yellows in the back beds, and marroon and burnt orange in the near beds.
I have mums that come back every year. I was told/read(?) to shear them down at least twice in the spring and not past July 4th. It forces them to be bushier and have more blooms. Seems to work!
I'm looking forward to seeing if they'll work for me too!
I bought some fall blooming mums from Home Depot last week. When do you think I can put these in the ground? I have them "on fall display" in my window boxes right now.
Deborah
ASAP, they do love to be in the ground, and they will die back but come back next spring.
Oh, I didn't know that....great news!
Good thread. I too got Lowe's mums, 50cents a piece. I'll stick them in this weekend. :0)