Mums

[Kittyluvr400]

Never had a need for mums in Autumn, therefore I don't know when they hit the stores. I'm on Long Island, wondering when mums start being displayed for sale. How long do they generally last when kept potted?

[imafan26]

Hello, and welcome to the forum. It is better to add your location and zone to your profile for future reference. It is easier to answer questions if we don't have to read through old posts to find your location. Mums bloom about September. You might find some then. Most catalog companies will ship plants to you at the right planting time which will be after your frost date. Mums would have to be kept inside to over winter in hard freeze areas. The perennial mums can last for years if maintained properly and they can be propagated by stem cuttings.

https://www.kingsmums.com/growing_info.php
https://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/prod ... ts-c92.htm

[Kittyluvr400]

I thought I did add my area and zone. (I see it, but if nobody else does I must be doing something wrong)
Hmmm...
Long Island, NY
Zone 7.

Thanks

[rainbowgardener]

Mums will be in the stores some time in September, having been forced to bloom early. They will be crowded several plants in a pot, to make them look full and bushy. They will be covered in blooms and look gorgeous. They will never ever look that good again and will probably die when winter comes no matter what, because they have been forced to exhaust themselves with whatever super bloom fertilizer and whatever they treat them with to get that effect. The stores essentially sell them as disposables, guaranteeing repeat customers.

If you really want to have perennial mums in your garden, buy some in spring, not in bloom, and take good care of them through the growing season. Clip off the growing tips around Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. This will make them bushier. They will bloom in the fall, not quite as spectacularly as the disposables, but they will be pretty and will keep blooming for a good while as long as you keep them deadheaded. Then they will not have trouble making it through the winter, having had a season to get rooted in and adapted to their new location. Clip off all the dead stems in winter or early spring, at ground level, and they will come back better than ever the following year.