Mums have taken over our gardens. It is amazing the way they suddenly start popping up here and there, until finally every house you pass has its blanket of burgundy, yellow and orange at the front entrance. Mums must be very easy to force, because you don't see other fall flowers lining the nursery shelves come fall, all set to bloom. It's nice that the nurseries did all the pinching and growing for us, while we were busy with our summer blooming plants.
Mums have become disposable plants and that's actually too bad because they're pretty easy to grow and there's greater variety if you grow your own. That's right, there's more to mums than those fall-toned pom-poms. So take a peek at how easy it is to grow mums and then read up on whether these autumn jewels are truly hardy mums that are going to pay a return visit next year.
Photo Courtesy of lauren stout / stock.xchng
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I overwinter mums here in zone 7b with no worries. I have added one tall variety to try in the outer deer resistant garden. The deer haven’t touched the mum in two years, so I will add more next spring. Inside the cottage garden fence, I’m growing shorter mums below the trunks of my tree-form Encore azaleas that will repeat bloom in fall… with sedum, ice plant, purple heuchera, stachys, ageratum, Persian shield…hoping for a great fall vignette. The foliage is “almost” as good as an evergreen shrub here. I have to pinch back and shape the mums through July 4, then let them bud up for the autumn display.
That sounds like a wonderful combination. I hope you post some photos on your web site.
Great point – the deer don’t like them. I don’t like the way they smell too much either, but I’m not looking at them as food.
Mums speak Fall to me like no other flower. I keep some in pots on steps with amaranth and coleus. Before the ground freezes, I plant the mums among the flower beds. Yellow mums next to sedum is a lovely combination and the bees like it too. The purple/pink mums get transplanted near the coneflower and hollyhocks. It puts some color back in the spots where the colors are starting to die off.
Another great combination and coleus are easy to find. Isn’t it nice to buy a plant and know exactly what color it is going to be, so you can find the perfect pairing.