How to Care for Mums Flowers

Available in dozens of exciting varieties, fall mums can bloom for weeks. The number of brightly colored flowers per plant will confirm why mums are a favorite for filling porch pots and flower beds when other blooming plants start winding down. Here’s what you need to know to grow and care for fall mums that are sure to liven up your landscape until winter sets in.

Are Mums Perennials or Annuals?

One of the first questions people have about mums is whether they’re annuals or perennials, and the answer is both! Mums generally come in two types: Florist mums (also known as cutting mums) and hardy mums (also known as garden mums). Both types come from the same original parent, a golden-yellow daisy-like mum from China. Today’s hybrids in both categories result from endless crosses between several species from China and Japan. The result of such hybridization performed over hundreds of years is different types of mums that perform for two distinct purposes.

Florist mums have many possible bloom forms, including quilled, pompon, spider, and more. Grown in greenhouses and used only as indoor plants, florist mums produce few underground runners, which mums need to survive cold weather. Florist mums planted outside are most likely used as short-term bedding plants that will be removed when the blooms are spent, or frost kills them. You can plant a potted florist mum out you receive as a gift but don’t expect it to survive the winter outside, no matter how much protection you give it.

Garden mums, on the other hand, can survive cold better. Most garden mums are perennials in Zones 5-9 and much more sturdy than florist types. However, some cultivars are less hardy than others and can be killed by an early spring frost.

How to Care for Mums in Pots

Both florist and garden mums make excellent container plants. Pop them into a clay pot or a fall window box by themselves or with other fall plants like flowering kale. Making sure your potted mums thrive starts with picking the right plant. Look for a plant with more buds than open flowers; it will last longer, and the repotting process will be less traumatic for a plant not yet in full bloom.

Speaking of repotting, it’s one of the best things you can do for your mums. After sitting in nursery containers, most mums in containers will have very compacted root balls. Gently breaking up the root ball and giving the mum a new home in some fresh potting soil will set your plant up for success.

And don’t forget the water. Give your mums a good soak after repotting, then water every other day or whenever the soil feels dry. Try to avoid allowing your plants to wilt. They’ll revive well after watering again, but the flower buds may not last as long or look as bright.

Decorating with Mums

Because of their mounded shape and profusion of late-season blooms, garden mums are perfect for mass plantings. To get the maximum effect from far away, stick to only one or two colors. Another possibility is to arrange a gradual transition of related colors in an ombre effect.

Choose orange, bronze, yellow, and creamy white mums if you decorate with pumpkins and gourds for fall. However, if you have a lot of evergreen plants that provide a backdrop of varying shades of green foliage, try bright pinks, lavenders, pure whites, or reds. With such bold colors, a large grouping of mums can add excitement to even the blandest of fall landscapes.

Choose cultivars according to their bloom times to get the most from your mums. It also helps to coordinate bloom time with the length of autumn in your location. Most garden mums will withstand a light fall frost, but finding the best cultivars will let you enjoy them for as long as possible.

When to Plant Mums in the Garden

Even though garden mums are perennials, you can treat them as annuals that live only one season. Fall planting lessens the chance of winter survival because roots don’t have time to establish themselves enough. If you want something more permanent, plant mums in the spring so they have enough time to get established in the garden before winter. This will improve their chances of overwintering and reblooming the following year. Some plants will even produce a few blooms in the spring before being pinched for fall flowers.

How to Plant Mums

Plant mums about 1 inch deeper than they were in the nursery pot, being careful with the roots as you spread them. Their roots are shallow, so they don’t like competition from weeds. Make sure to choose a sunny spot with good drainage, and provide plenty of water.

Sunlight

Whether in a pot or your garden, mums like lots of light. Choose a full sun spot that gets at least six hours of light a day. Plants that don’t get enough sunlight will be tall and leggy and produce fewer, smaller flowers.

Soil

Mums thrive in well-drained soil. If the soil doesn’t drain properly, add compost and mix it into an 8-12 inch depth for best performance. You could also grow mums in raised beds filled with a garden soil mix that drains well.

Water

Water newly planted mums thoroughly, and never let them wilt. After they’re established, give mums about an inch of water per week. When bottom leaves look limp or start to turn brown, water more often. Avoid soaking the foliage, which can lead to disease.

Fertilizer

Plants set out in spring should get a 5-10-10 fertilizer once or twice a month until cooler weather sets in. Don’t fertilize plants set out in fall as annuals. The plants you hope to overwinter should get high-phosphorus fertilizer to stimulate root growth.

How to Winterize Garden Mums

Prepare mums for winter after the first hard frost. Mulch up to 4 inches with straw or shredded hardwood around the plants. Pinch off dead blooms to clean up the plant if you want, but leave branches intact. Mums have a better chance of surviving if you wait to prune old stems until spring.

Although garden mums are often called hardy mums, they may not survive the winter if drainage is poor or if you live in a very cold climate. If your mums survive the winter, you’ll see new growth developing around the base of the plant in early spring. As soon as the weather warms, pull away mulch to allow new shoots to pop up. The old, dead growth from last year can be clipped away at this point. If nothing develops at the base of the plant, it’s a sign that the plant did not survive the winter.

Pruning Tips

The key to those full, rounded domes of blooms that you associate with mums is well-timed pruning called pinching. If you bought large, full plants in the fall, they’ve already been pinched and are ready for planting. Young spring plants will need pinching for maximum bloom and the best plant shape.

Start pinching once the stems reach about six inches tall. To pinch a mum plant, remove a couple inches of the growing tip of a stem by nipping it between your thumb and forefinger. Repeat the process with every 3-5 inches of growth (about every 2-4 weeks) until early July. Stopping then ensures you will get good bud formation and blooms in the fall. Each pinched stem will divide into two new ones, creating a dense, compact growth habit.

Types of Mums

Mums aren’t limited to the candy-colored mounded plants often sold in front of grocery stores in the fall. There are dozens of gorgeous varieties of chrysanthemums, each with its unique beauty.

Decorative Mums

Also known as florist mums, these chrysanthemums have long, tightly overlapping petals. They can be either incurve (where petals curve up and in toward the flower center) or reflex (where petals curve out and down, away from the flower center). Some of the most common decorative varieties are ‘Coral Charm,’ with bright purple, pink, and peach petals, and ‘Fireflash,’ with fiery orange- and yellow-colored petals.

Pom Pom Mums

These fluffy mums, also known as button mums, produce masses of small, petal-packed blooms in many colors. Some common varieties of the pom pom chrysanthemum are ‘Tinkerbell,’ ‘Barbara,’ ‘Patriot,’ ‘Ruby Mound,’ ‘Garnet,’ and ‘West Point.’ They all have small, spherical flowers from summer to frost.

Single and Semidouble Mums

You may often mistake single and semidouble mums for daisies because they look so similar. These mums have outer flower petals of one (single) or two to three (semidouble), growing very close together from the center disk. These mums grow a stunning 1 to 3 feet tall, perfect for growing along a fence. Some of the most common single and semidouble varieties are ‘Single Apricot Korean,’ with shades of peach, and ‘Crimson Glory,’ with shades of deep, crimson red.

Spoon Mums

The name truly fits this type of mum, which sprouts beautiful spoon-shaped petals. These flowers only grow about 4 inches in diameter, making them a petite mum to add to your garden that won’t take up too much space. The most popular of the spoon mums is ‘Kimie,’ which shows off golden yellow petals in a single row around a tight center disk.

Quilled Mums

Quilled mums resemble the single daisy type, only with the tubular petals. This is different from the full quill flower form, which is almost always seen only in florist or decorative mums. Some of the most popular varieties for quilled mums are ‘Mammoth Yellow Quill,’ spikes of yellow, and ‘Seatons Toffee,’ with red spikes resembling sparklers on the Fourth of July.

Anemone

Resembling the long petals of ‘Spider’ and ‘Spoon’ mums, ‘Anemone’ has long petals, just flatter than its semi-twin. This mum has one or more rows of single flat petals topped with a raised center of tiny disk florets. The florets are usually a darker color. These cute little flowers only grow about 4 inches in diameter, just like ‘Spoon’ mums. The most common anemone varieties are ‘Dorothy Mechen,’ showing off light purple flowers, and ‘Adrienne Mechen,’ a close cousin sprouting a pink center, trailing into bright white flowers at the tips.

Spider Mums

Spider chrysanthemums look a lot like the quilled and anemone mums. The only difference is in their thin, spider-like petals. Some of the most common spider mums are ‘Western Voodoo,’ sprouting colors of orange and yellow, ‘Yellow Rayonnante,’ showing off curvy petals, and ‘Seiko Fusui,’ containing long, yellow, spider-like petals.

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