Mums.....

My mother and i were discussing all the mums we see everywhere right now. Is this a regional thing that they can survive in this cold weather? Since weather doesnt turn where i am from, you dont see a drastic change in someone's landscape/garden plants. But, i have noticed around here that fall comes and BAM! mums EVERYWHERE!

How long do they last? Will they just freeze and die when the temp gets down?

Most of the mums you are seeing around right now are "hardy" mums otherwise considered "perennials". They can take it quite cold,even a freeze.The reason I say "most" is that you do see some inside stores right now being marketed for T-day and upcoming holidays. Those are known as "football" or "pot" mums they are not hardy and usually only found inside the floral section of grocers and florists.
How long a mum will last while in bloom depends on a lot of factors. They come into bloom at many different times. "early" mums start blooming in the second to third week of August and "late" mums are just opening right now. A lot of rain will knock the life span of the blooms down,as well as excessive dry and hot conditions. A successful mum garden/patch would consist of varieties that span the blooming times,a few early,then mid followed by late to really late. Asters and pansies make a nice fall accompaniment to mums as well.
One of the biggest reasons mums dont come back the following year is they were not planted properly. Many folks buy the mum and keep it in the nursery pot until its done blooming and then plant it. There is really no problem with this approach as long you keep the plant well watered while in the container and then follow good practice once you set it in the ground. When you plant the bloomed out mum rough up the root ball a bit and place it in a hole a good size bigger than the pot it came in. Water thoroughly afterward. The roots will keep growing long after the top of the plant looks dead. So remember to keep it watered during this time. A real dry winter will also damage the mum. Mulch your newly planted mum with a good pile of leaves and when you can throw a load of snow on top of it. By buying mums early and planting them in say August, helps get the plant established long before winter. This plant has a much better chance of surviving the winter. Come springtime pull back the mulch and watch for signs of new growth. I recommend once the mum is up a good bit run the lawn mower over it to cut it back. This does two things,it encourages them to produce side shoots creating a more full plant, and it also keeps the mum from blooming in the spring . By stopping the spring bloom the plant sends all it energy to vegetative growth,this in turn makes full a healthy plant loaded with blooms for a great fall showing.
So in a nut shell...water,water,water...plant in a good size hole...mulch..cut back in the spring...fertilize during summer. great fall display.
By the way we still have some late blooming fall mums for sale at Bardstown rd market Saturday morning for the next couple weeks.

well you schooled me huh?

thanks for all the info. I guess it also answers this question, i always wonder why i see people with "dead" mums. I never understood why they keep them way after they look done with.

ok, so you water, water, water. When it is snowing, you dont water but throw snow on it. Wow, it all sounds so foreign to me. I was checking out the mums at Home Depot. There were some 6, 8, and 10 inch mums in pots, i am guessing these are the ones that are not hardy mums? But they did have some really, really large mums. There were also pretty cheap, about 12 dollars.

excessive dry and hot conditions

i am guessing this is why you dont see many of these in south texas. valleyites go mum crazy during homecoming season when they make, well they call them mums and garters for students.

thanks for all the information. I am tempted to buy one and try to plant it, but man i do not have a green thumb at all, its more like purple or red or something. I really like rubber plants, so this summer i bought some rubber plants, and some other plants i think they were called tropical type. They look like ferns, but not (sorry), one variation of them has leaves that are reddish and green. Really pretty. Well, i bought a whole mess of them, and wanted to have them all flanking my front door. poor suckers died. well they are not dead, but i cant get them looking right. they are really dry, then i overwater, then i am afraid to water.....sigh..... sorry cycle.

i also bought a few of these for my mom, they FLOURISHED! But then again, she is the type of person that takes a "little piece" of this or that and bam! she makes it bloom or root, whatever it is called.

maybe i should just stick to cooking............