How to Care for your Mums!!

Chrysanthemums are America's most popular fall flower. Mums add bright fall colors when most of the perennial garden is fading; they're always a welcome sight. The following tips will help you establish healthy mums with 'perennial returns'.
 
Planting
Select a planting sight with at least a half day a sun. Mums do best in full sun. Amend the planting area with compost to add fertility, break up clay and improve drainage. Remove the pot and gently loosen the root ball of your mum. Apply a root and bloom fertilizer to help establish a healthy root system. Water thoroughly.
 
Watering
Mums need at least 1 inch of water a week. Hot dry spells require daily watering. One reason Mums fail to return the next year is lack of water up till the time the ground is frozen. If you disconnect your hose you still need to get water to your plants. This is true of all plants newly installed in the fall. Keep your mums well watered.
 
Fertilizing Established Plants
Starting in April apply some Espoma's Flower-tone fertilizer per instructions on the bag monthly. Stop feeding by August.
 
Pinching
To encourage branching and development of compact bushy plants; it is very important to pinch back your garden mums in the spring as soon as the new growth is 4 - 6 inches tall. Use your thumbnail and to  pinch  about ½ of the new growth at the top of each and every shoot. Repeat this procedure through the summer whenever new shoots are 3 - 5 inches long. Stop pinching around July 10 - 15th. After the last pinch your garden mum will grow to be more than double in size.
 
Winter Protection
Again we stress the importance of keeping your garden mum's soil moist as winter approaches. Do not cut back plants until following spring. Cut of faded out flowers and leave the rest of the plant intact.
 
Mulch plants after several hard frosts. Straw or evergreen branches work well.  Place the branches lightly over the mums right on top of the snow cover. Remember you are mulching to keep your plants evenly cold. Remove mulch in early spring. After mums show new growth coming from roots; dead branches then can be pruned off.
 
Mums mix so well with asters, ornamental kale and cabbage. Brenda’s Blumenladen is well stocked with fall accent plants to highlight the beauty of the season.
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