Growing Fall Mums
by www.gardening-tips-perennials.com

Growing fall mums is one of those things they don’t tell you about in gardening school. Many folks assume the fall mum normally seen in garden centers is a hardy perennial and I’m here to tell you (unfortunately) that is just ain’t so.

There are hardy varieties / species and they are listed below along with their hardiness ratings. Normally these are found on the perennial benches of garden centers.

The trick to growing fall mums and getting them to flower heavily is to treat them in a specific manner. In general, they like full hot sunshine. Give them shade and they get tall and leggy.

They like regular and deep waterings all summer long. Figure soaking them at least twice a week.

They like to be fed. Feed with compost in the early spring and then give a booster of fish emulsion every two weeks to really pump them along.

The major trick in growing fall mums is to let them grow in the early spring and when they reach 12-18 inches tall, cut them back by half so they are only 6-9 inches tall. This will force the plant to bush out and produce more shoots. (more shoots equals more flowers)

If you don’t cut them back at 18 inches tall, they will continue to grow to 3 feet tall and produce flowers on top of the plant. A reduced number of flowers I note.
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If you want to get double duty from the garden, allow the fall mum to overwinter in the garden where you’ve planted it. In the spring, dig it up and move it to a full sun spot out in the vegetable patch or other area where you can tend it but it won’t take up flowering space.

At this digging and moving time, you’ll see all the babies around the main plant. These can be pulled off the plant and as long as they have a bit of root, they’ll grow into full mums by fall if treated well (see above). I’ll often throw away the woody center in the spring (it’s often dead anyway) and only grow the surrounding babies into full flowering fall mums.

Growing fall mums is as simple as the instructions above and then in the fall, carefully dig it and move it to the desired garden location (where it will flower and overwinter). A fall mum is one of the few plants that will easily and successfully move in full flower if the move is done reasonably carefully and adequate water is given to the plant after the move.

Hardier fall chrysanthemums include:

*The old style of mums such as Chrysanthemum x rubellum ‘Clara Curtis’ and Chrysanthemum ‘Mei-kyo’.
*The newer mums bred in Minnesota including:

*‘Inca’, light bronze-orange, double button, low, early
*’Burnt Copper’, copper orange-bronze, double pompon, tall, midseason
*’Centennial Sun’ bright golden yellow, double decorative,medium height, early
*’Minnautumn’ reddish bronze, formal decorative, low, midseason,
*‘Minngopher’ crimson red, decorative, low, late
*‘Minnruby’ ruby red, decorative,low, midseason,
*’Snowscape’ white with purple tips,semi-double decorative, low, early
*’Mellow Moon’ cream, semi-incurved decorative, medium, midseason
*’Minnwhite’ white, decorative,low, early,
*’Rose Blush’ mauve, decorative, low-medium, midseason
*’Rosy Glow’ deep rosy pink, decorative incurved, medium, midseason
*’Snowsota’ white with cream centers, pompon, low, midseason