Bring a Burst of Fall Color to Your Garden with Chrysanthemums
posted August 18, 2009 - 4:21pm
The change of seasons can feel so abrupt in the garden. We wake up one morning and all those vibrant summer flowers have disappeared seemingly overnight. Ease the transition with fall-blooming chrysanthemums.
You may have noticed “mums” arriving at the garden center
s in late summer. They are the perfect choice for adding some last minute fall color to your garden. Mums only take about six weeks to become established if you are anticipating their return next spring. About the time that summer flowers are beginning to fade, mums will be coming into their peak blooming time. They thrive in the cooler temperatures, often displaying their rich colors through a light frost and until a frigid killing frost.
For best results, plant chrysanthemums in full sun and well drained soiled. They are photoperiodic so bloom with the shorter days and longer nights. Do not plant near streetlights or any type of outdoor night lighting that could upset their blooming cycle.
Mums are divided into 13 classes with approximately 3000 cultivars covering a wide range of colors and varying shades. Some are considered “florist gift plants” and may not typically be hardy in colder zones. If you want to grow hardy perennial mums, be sure to check the cold hardiness zone before you buy.
While there are plenty of choices, you will likely find only a few types at your local garden center unless you are fortunate enough to live near a specialty chrysanthemum grower. When planning earlier in the growing season, you can greatly expand the array of choices through mail-order garden suppliers.
If time is running short, your local garden center should have a few irresistible choices. Not only are the vivid colors hard to resist, but mums beg to be touched. Ranging from a cushiony dense petal orientation to a delicate filigree feeling, chrysanthemums satisfy a tactile sensory experience in children and adults.
Aside from adding color and texture to your fall garden, chrysanthemums have rightfully earned a reputation for other uses including culinary, medicinal, insecticidal, and environmental (filters air pollution). It is no wonder mums remain popular in every type of garden.
Are your mums planted and blooming yet?
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Comments
What a nice pick me up..
Just got to read your article this Sunday morning and even the pictures of the mums picked me up....I can image what the real thing would do. Great article. Thank you.
Love those mums!
Great article and pictures! Mums are such an easy to grow perennial and bloom when other flowers in the garden are wanning.
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Thanks Prism
Yes, I clicked on the photo and downloaded the full version and already have it on my desktop and it does look so colorful and pretty. Thanks so much.
I live in Mumbai city, which is similar to newyork with tall multistoried buildings everywhere that are an eyesore and no trees around in the main city...So, no chance of gardening here..:-(
You don't get to see any flowers blooming naturally either..for that you need to enter a flower shop.
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Beautiful Flowers
rawnak, beautiful flowers certainly are spiritually uplifting. Although I hadn't thought about it before, I imagine that is why they have long had a presence in worship in probably every religion, at funerals, as the gift of choice for hospital patients, or elderly that need cheering up.
Glad you enjoyed it! I'd be delighted to give you some virtual cheering up with a picture for your desktop! Make sure you click through to get the bigger version if you are going to try to use it as wallpaper. Actually, I resize them to about 5x7 for online. If it loses too much resolution blowing it up, let me know which one and I will send the bigger original to you.
Btw, I believe I just found a bug - in the editor that is. I was going to tell you that two of the pics are from morguefile and the rest are mine and to just mouse over to see the alternative text with the morguefile photo credit. However, none of the alternative text is showing! hmmmm! Guess I need to let someone know!
Anyways, the field of mums and the white mums are the two morguefile photos. Clicking on them should take you to the original photo as will mine also. Enjoy!
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Planting Mums
Tyla, I used to have beautiful mums back east. I don't know why I never thought to plant them out here in MT before now - perhaps because there aren't very many local sources for them. I really needed something this year to help extend my gardening season and mums were calling out to me. I'm not sure if they will make it through the winter. Going against my own advice, I have no clue what zone these are hardy in. But I didn't care when I saw them although I do hope they will prove to be hardy here.
A dozen... I can't wait to see pictures as I'm sure we all will be expecting to see. :)
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You're Very Welcome, Sudhan!
Do you currrently live in India? I suspect you might have the same difficulties as rawnak in growing Mums or other flowers? Climate might also be a consideration.
Thanks for the comment!
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Mums Contrast and Texture
Thanks Mia! Because the colors are so rich, they do contrast well. The deep pinks do look nice with darker foliage. Having so much texture, they also work nice to carry other textures through in the garden too.
Here's where the pink was planted - the rock was looking lonely and needed something to compliment its texture. Now I think I might need a Hosta or something to embrace it from each side.
We want to see pictures when you get yours planted!
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Thank You, Athlyn!
Glad you enjoyed it! I needed a little pick-me-up in my garden. When I got home from a two-week trip, my veggie garden wasn't looking all that great and the weather has been lousey too. These definitely cheered me up. :)
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Absolutely Brilliant and Beautiful!
The splash of colorful flowers is what I miss in life here in India...One has to go to a public garden to see any kind of plants or flowers..Most flowers (naturally growing) are plucked away by the people residing close by, for their morning "pujas"...
Flowers really add beauty to nature and also is so refreshing to the eyes and mind...They make you feel "happy" and give you "hope" that there are beautiful things in life as well...
Thanks you so much, I wish I could add this photo to my desktop..Let's see if I can, If you don't mind.
I really enjoyed this post..
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Can't Wait To Plant Mums!
Mid-late Sptember is mum planting time around here and I can't wait! There's a nursery in my area that always has a great selection and I'm sure I'll spend too much money once again. They'll have about 5 acres of them laid out in the orchard around their little store. It looks just like the chrysanthemum field in your picture.
Unfortunately,mums don't usually survive the winter in my mucky garden soil. The heavy rains tend to finish them off if they are planted in the ground. We have to plant them in containers. Even though they may not survive past Christmas I always get at least a dozen because autumn just wouldn't be the same without them.
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