Fall Mums

Like so many people, this time of year, when summer is winding down and school is getting started again, I start looking forward to cool, crisp autumn days.  And, because the sizzle of my hot summer containers has started to fizzle, often autumn at my house is heralded by the arrival of a container of mums.  I know I am not alone.  Last year, the garden center I work at sold well over 900 mums in gallon pots alone!  So today I thought I would address a few of the mum questions I get regularly from customers.


Chrysanthemums, or mums for short, have been a prized plant for centuries, in many cultures. The name, from botanic latin roots, means Chrys-golden and anthemum-flower, and the straight species is yellow.  Through cultivation, this plant is available in an almost-endless variety of coloration, size, and shape.  The Chrysanthemum is the official flower of the city of Chicago.  This flower symbolizes optimism, fidelity, the sun, and meditation.  Just looking at it's warm, cheerful flowers helps brighten a chilly autumn day.

The mums you find in garden centers are carefully groomed for several months to produce an
incredible number of blooms on short, sturdy stems.  This involves a careful feeding schedule, and, most importantly, regular "pinching" to keep the plants short, bushy, and to increase the number of stems which will produce blossoms.  Keep in mind that, even if you successfully transplant and winter over a mum in your garden bed, it is unlikely to look the same as it did that first season without lots of grooming throughout the summer.

When selecting a mum to bring home, it is often tempting to grab the one with the biggest display of blossoms.  That would be a mistake.  These plants, while glorious, are in their final show of beauty.  After those blossoms fade, in a week or two, your plant will spend the remainder of the seasoning looking sad and disappointing.  While it is hard to resist that cushion of flowers, it is a much smarter plan to look for a plant with many buds and only a few opened or opening flowers.  While it may start off slow, it will not take long for this plant to start impressing you.  And, with all those buds, it will continue to impress you for weeks to come.  As the flowers fade and turn brown, simply pinch them off and discard them.  The next flower will quickly fill in that empty spot.

Once you have brought purchased your mum and brought it home, you can pot it up, or simply place the pot it came in inside a larger decorative container.  But, whichever you choose, water it well. I recommend not only daily watering, but add to that water a weak mix of fertilizer to help support all the energy that plant will require to keep those blooms going for you.  It can be difficult to not have your mum dry out, so I like to water mine at the same time every day, so as not to forget.  If you have simply put the plant, pot and all, inside another decorative container, remove it.  Completely saturate the soil.  Let the pot drain freely, then set it back in the container you are using. This will keep your plant happy and beautiful for the full length of autumn.

People often ask me if they can plant their mums in their garden once they are done blooming.  That can be a tricky question to answer, for several reasons.  Firstly, some, but not all florist mums are hardy here in Illinois.  The more important factor is a little more complex to explain, but here is a brief overview:  Remember that these plants have been groomed since they began to produce the maximum amount of flower on the minimum amount of plant.  Flowering takes an incredible amount of energy.   Plants create energy via photosynthesis, and store extra energy in the roots to help them winter over, when there are no leaves.  However, often these plants burn through all of their energy in creating their floral display.  In combination with a late planting date, leaving very little time for the roots to establish in a new environment, and there is not guarantee of success in planting these beauties out in your garden bed after they are done flowering.  However, I have sometimes had success doing it, so my short answer is this:  Why not try it?