A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 hardy mums

Ok here it is time to show my gardening ignorance again! They have a ton of pretty hardy mums at walmart for $1.37. They are all flowered and bloomed if I purchase them soon and pick off all the flowers will they bloom again come time for fall? I am also guessing that they will be bushier if I do this as well. I plan on putting them in my window containers for fall then planting them in the ground as season ends.......Do you all think they will survive that kinda transplant? They are pretty small.

No, the flowers you see are all you will get this fall. They say not to pinch mums after about July 4, or they won't bloom in the fall. It's hard to get mums to survive outdoors by planting in the fall. Maybe if you protected them real well. spring planting outdoors gives more time for roots to develop and greatly increases the chances of survival over winter. If you have consistent snow cover through the winter though, that would be excellent.

This must be the mistake I have made in the past with my mums.......The put them out to sell in the fall therefore I thought that was when to plant them. Do you think that if I go ahead and purchase them and put them in the containers and then brought them indoors for the winter then planted them this spring it would work. Or if I am real lucky hubby is going to buy me a greenhouse for our anniversary If we can come up with the cash!

If they are truly HARDY MUMS, and the key word is hardy, then they need to die back to the ground to start new for next year. Here in Northern Jersy we plant them between now and Sept for fall color and then the freeze takes over and does its thing. I say hardy because many places claim to sell the hardy variety and are untruthful so the mums don't last. I pinch them back in early summer then let them go. They double in size. Be careful of that Wally World price sticker. With all the color in the garden now I go for the plants with buds only so I can enjoy color thru the fall season.
Good Luck

I would try to overwinter them indoors. Just watch out for aphids. Have some Safer's Soap ready.

Where we live, even the guy at the nursery recommends planting mums in the spring. The winter can just get to harsh for the mums with the limited amount of root growth that will occur yet this fall. They sell Yoder mums which are probably better quality mums than Wal-Mart's generic.

I had no problem though, with a couple of mums I planted in the fall a couple of years ago. They were planted near my front porch which is concrete. I think the sun on the concrete kept the soil warm enough to allow them to survive. I have very poor luck though with fall planted mums out in open beds.

I took a cutting of one of my mom's mums last fall and the mum is doing fine now.

When I lived up Indpls.I grew my mums.I had a few in-ground in a 2 ft spot beside an old coal shoot.sidewalk was in front and was raised with bricks(3 high).I always dumped 9 inches of mulch on them.I had others in concrete planters that after they bloomed I crammed in pots and covered with straw under the porch and was laid over by tarp.
If you go to plant some in ground you want to do it in june& choose a spot with some winter protection.My MIL had some pampass grass beside driveway and was surrounded with mums in fall colors.it was mounded...the whole thing...at halloween she sit a fall display and afterwards would break the hay down and surround the mums.she was out spencer so gets snowdrifts at times.you then cut them back in spring.wait for growth to emerge then trim.the nursery she bought her mums at is off rockville rd behind Thatcher golf course.I can't rember name of nursery now or the road its actually on.Its over in speedway.they do wholesale& retail.

and in answer to haveing mums bloom for you....buy the ones that have buds and not opened yet...or just starting to open a few if you want to know color.I don't trust tags,but love clearnce carts.I bought 6 last yr for .19

I live in by lake Michigan. it is a zone 6 unlike most of the state ( which is a 5) I planted 5 plants of "hardy mums" last year in late Sept. They came back FINE in the spring with out any effort on my part. they are now huge and getting ready to start blooming. I am a really new gardener, so I love simple plant that I don't have to do anything to them to make them look great. So i guess my advise is don't over think hardy mums, they are simple and "hardy"

The nursery in speedway is called dannamons I believe I live in putnam county spencer is just a hour drive from here!