Mums -- anybody grow 'em?

Got a gift of mums from a friend ... the blooms dropped off fairly quick. Transplanted them out back. Tag says expect best blooms from 3 to 4 weeks. Well they've been in the ground for a couple weeks, and came to us in full bloom.

They weren't that spectacular in the first place. And they're taking up valuable real estate.

Should I just consider these otherwise very healthy looking plants a bust and just dig 'em up and move on?

Mums only bloom once a year, usually in the fall.  The ones from the florist are forced and will die down when frost hits, come back up next spring and bloom late summer/early fall.  I have them in my perennial beds and put annuals around  for summer color.  They also will multiply and need to be separated every so many years.

I also have some in pots that I let grow elsewhere until they start to bloom and then put into the bed. until they finish blooming.

Kay

I love pink/purple mums (birthday flower). I dead head mine and they produce a summer and a late bloom. For winter I cut or pull the dead stuff and cover with a bit of leaves. Marc, if they are taking up valuable space, they may not be the most rewarding perennial flower for you. Or do what Kay does, hide them out back until they bloom.

+1 What Kay said.

Thanks folks! I definitely won't give them any pride of place,then.

My foster-father grew a multitude of 'mums of all shapes, sizes, and colours.
The smell of them always reminds me of him. 

He also grew ?, I have forgotten the name, begins with a G, I think, at the same time and they too, were of all shapes, colours and sizes.

A few years ago I was given a potted 'mum, a small yellow one; I planted it in the garden after it had finished blooming.  It has survived for several years now, and to my surprise it grew very tall, and got to the stage where it had flower buds but did not survive the cold. Then a coupleoif years ago I cut off the long stalks and brought them indoors and they all bloomed and lasted about six weeks. I do that every year now.

I was very glad to see this question.  I have quite a few mums around our yard here and there.  It is 95 degrees today and it will be 97 two days this week with the rest of the week hovering around 95.

I am thinking that because of this hot weather, a lot of my mums look like this:



The buds either are brown around the edges or completely brown.  I try to water well... but with temps like ours...

These have come back year after year in October or so... they were here when we moved here 10 years ago.  I don't do much more than clear dead leaves and prune them to be as shapely as possible:



The mums in my color spot around the mailbox cost 50 cents each on clearance last October.  The were immediately planted in October and were pretty for quite a while.  As you can see, they've over wintered and seem to be ready to bloom again.  They are shielded from the hottest sun of the day due to their location (as you can see.. it's 3:00 p.m. and they are in they shade):



And these were larger size mums when I got them in October (1.00 each).  They have become VERY large:



The real estate these occupy is not valuable to me (at the moment).  I've yanked out a few here and there where I wanted a different flower.  My neighbors say that if I deadhead these, they will bloom again in October.  I'll test that theory to see what happens. 

However... this year for my perennial experiment, I'm going to focus on echinacea.  I like the Cheyenne Spirit ones and I'm going see what comes of those seeds.  I also have some seeds from Burpee called "Warm Summer" that I found to be very pretty.  I plan on planting in fall, but I also planted in spring just to see what would happen.  They are growing well and seem to be heat tolerant.  Sorry I digressed, my point is that I will probably replace a lot of the mums in direct sun with more heat tolerant perennials, and echinacea might fit the bill.

Anyone have any suggestions of what to do with my poor mums that are brown on arrival?


Hmm.... I'm looking at my current temp listed below.  89 degrees?  Bah!  It's 95 by all accounts.

I love mums and would gladly give them a place of proud real estate, but as they are a relative of ragweed, I cannot have them near due to Hubby's allergies!

Windmere, great post. You've definitely made me think about keeping them.

The other day I took a photo of these mums in my garden.  I am so amazed by this particular color... they were more pink last year, but they seemed to have morphed into another color:




And these orange/coral colors go well together I think:




I would like to say that I planned for all these orange hues to occur (with the mums matching the echinacea).  I just planted the echinacea knowing full well it would not match its neighbors.  However, the echinacea flowers became more richly coral colored over time and so did the mums.  Soil content affected colors?  I dunno.  Perhaps rich MM "type" soil makes a difference.

I like those pink-rimmed and yellow/orange-inside flowers much more than a simple monotone pink. Very nice!

Soil pH can change the color of rhododendrons and azaleas, so maybe it can do the same with some other flowers too?

The mums I planted, unfortunately were white -- very blah, to my eye. But still, white can be a good color to accent the "real" colors of showier blossoms. And now I'm wondering if, the next time they bloom, they'll even be white at all!

Windmere, Beautiful flowers.

Marc, I use white as an accent color in my flower beds with strong pinks and purples. Also, the gardenias are white and look good against the green foliage.

Show us a picture sometime!

I have grown them, here they are a Fall bloomer.  The nurseries prune them to bloom all at once in a globe type shape.  If you grow them from little, you can pinch back various stems at different lengths to get a longer blooming time.  Usually smaller flowers though.  

I have had those "morphing" color mums before!  They are really cool!  I had a white that matured into a purplish center.  And I have had yellows that matured into an orangy-melon color.  Windmere, those coneflowers and mums look like they were designed by the same artist!  Beautiful!

Scorpio Rising wrote:I have grown them, here they are a Fall bloomer.  The nurseries prune them to bloom all at once in a globe type shape.  If you grow them from little, you can pinch back various stems at different lengths to get a longer blooming time.  Usually smaller flowers though.  

I have had those "morphing" color mums before!  They are really cool!  I had a white that matured into a purplish center.  And I have had yellows that matured into an orangy-melon color.  Windmere, those coneflowers and mums look like they were designed by the same artist!  Beautiful!

Oh wow, thank you so much!

Marc, All I have are photos from the past. This year is severe water management so the flower beds aren't as pretty as before.