It’s time to decorate your fall garden, patio, porch or favorite pot (s) with hardy fall mums (chrysthanemum). You will see lots of bright colored ones available in garden centers right now. Here’s a few tips on how to keep them growing beautifully.
If you are planning to put them in your flower bed choose a sunny, well-drained spot. Dig a hole a little wider than the pot and just as deep as the soil ball. If your soil is not good, add 1/3 composted or organic material such as humus in with the existing soil to fill back in around the root ball. Put some time-release fertilizer in the planting hole according to label directions and water in thoroughly. Keep your mum well-watered if it doesn’t rain even when the weather turns chilly. Your mum still needs a drink. Remove/pinch off spent blooms and your mum should provide color for weeks. If you plan on allowing it to grow back next year you will need to prune the dead foliage off the top 2 inches from base of plant after a hard frost or at the end of winter. Fertilize again in the spring and keep it cut back to 10 *12″ until July 15. After that date don’t prune anymore to allow for buds to set for fall color. Repeat this process yearly. Many mums will come back for years, especially the really hardy Belgian varieties.
For those of you who just want to decorate a porch or patio, your mum should bloom fine this fall if the buds are open or beginning to open when you purchase it even if it is not in full sun. However, mums do not usually come back if left in pots (the root freezes in the winter in many locations) and will not bloom well if grown in shade.
I hope you enjoy this fall season with a mum. If you are in the Leesburg, Virginia area on September 14 or 15 stop by and visit the Fall Plant Sale at Monroe Technology Center where I teach horticulture. Our students would be glad to show you their mums.
The Fall Plant Sale to support the Horticulture Program at Monroe Technology Center will be Sept. 14th and 15th (this Thurs/Friday) from 10am to 6pm
Featuring:
8″ Fall Mums – $5.00 (5 for $20)
12″ Fall Mums – $20.00 (3 for $55)
Winter Pansies – $2.50 ($15/flat)
Assorted Perennials, Trees and Shrubs – prices as marked
This is a great cause and good deals. Some of us think the quality of their plants are far above what you get at Home Depot/Walmart and your helping out the kids.
thedailylily.com 
after seeing those Big Lovely Mums on the Daily Lily I could not help but want to go and get some…they look so beautiful..and refreshingly peaceful to my eye…thank you for the tip on how to get them to come back next year….I especially love the light purple ones I see in the far left hand corner of this picture……It sure reminds me of the beauty of Heaven…cant wait to come to the sale…dj
I got a sneak preview of the greenhouse and they were even more beautiful than the picture as Debi had the yellow mums also mixed in with the other colors. Just outstanding!
I would like to share a poem by my Mom about Fall. This was written in the early 1900’s and it reminds me of this time of the year each and every year. God’s Beauty is always there for us.
“MY FAVORITE SEASON”
Most people like the Spring of the year
But my favorite is the Fall, my dear.
When the ground is strewn with leaves of brown
And the trees have put on their new Fall gown
Pretty Fall flowers wear frost in their hair
Summer has past and Harvest is here.
Oh God, make me thankful that we are here.”
___Ada P. Craddock (c)
I could almost smell the pumpkin pie and hear the rustle of the falling fall leaves…your mothers poem caused a gentle leap of my heart …bringing memories of cool fall breezes blowing while setting by my window in the early fall morning reading my bible with God…(it also made me want a yellow mum too now)..I hope you have more of Your Mothers Poems to share ….they are very thought provoking….and cause you to want to just be alone with God..get to know Him more…through His beauty..dj
Just like Dorothy your mother’s poem conjures up so many delightful memories of days in Virginia. I remember apple pie with cinnamon aroma coming out of the oven. I remember piles and piles of leaves heaped high awaiting someone to dive right in. I remember the rainbow of fall colors strewn about the hills and I remember the mums plucked for a fall bouquet emitting a delightful aroma. I remember the frost on the gardens and the harvest of potatoes and pumpkins. I remember the slight chill in the air and the smell of chimneys as I strolled by. What a beautiful memory.
Thank you for sharing your Mom’s poem.
When we see the Glorious colors of these Autumn blossoms it brings new joy that although the season of Winter is approaching, yet there is still the hope that these brilliant colors bring to our lives that keeps us steady through the coming cold months.
This calls to mind Sara’s book, a series on the Spiritual Seasons, entitled LANDSCAPE DESIGN. It is a prophetically spiritual discernment of the four Seasons of the year and their significance in our spiritual walk in the Heavenly Kingdom.
Dorothy is right about the excitement that comes with the Autumn colors. I plan to purchase the flowers and the BOOK !!
Debi thank you for sharing tips on properly planting mums. I love their sweet fragrance and beauty. Is there anything special I need to do for the sandy soil of Louisiana other than what you mentioned? I love the picture and wish I could plant mums everywhere!
Rena if your sandy soil drains too quickly and does not hold moisture try adding 1/3 part peat moss to 2/3 part sandy soil. The peat will hold moisture for the mum and provide some nutrients. Adding the timed release fertilzer such as Osmocote will feed it for several months. Enjoy the blooms.
Hello Mrs. Chavez i remember those mums, they were really nice…..Laura Yanes.
Hi Laura
Welcome to the Daily Lily! I am glad to see you writing and telling us also in your bio that you love praising the Lord! Yes, those mums were nice and one reason those mums were so nice is because you were very conscientious about taking good care watering and fertilizing them. Maybe you would like to tell us about some other things you have been making and or caring for in class. Thanks and keep praising the Lord.
Mrs. Chaves
Im glad youve joined the Daily Lily…Praising the Lord is wonderful and the Daily Lily is sure a great place to tell about all the fantastic things He does in our lives….did Mrs Chavez tell you she went to LVHS too?….so did I….Shes a great teacher..and I see all the work you and the other students do…it is wonderful/beautiful…keep praising Him with the works of your hands…Dorothy