After the blooms die on the chrysanthemums that decorate my porch and/or my patio, I often plant them in a garden bed. Sometimes they live, sometimes they don’t. The ones in this picture were in two large pots on my porch steps a few years ago.
I plant them after the blooms die and before a hard frost, covering them with leave mulch. I read a recent article on Dave’s Garden web site gives information the proper way of planting. I always trimmed the plants back before planting, not realizing I should leave the dead foliage on until spring. Maybe that is why some of mine didn’t make it. I know to “pinch” the plants to about 4-inches until July but usually I am so busy I don’t get it done. I haven’t pinched these red mums but they don’t seem to mind.
These need to be divided, another chore I didn’t get around to doing in the spring. I did divide some in the back garden and shared with friends and co-workers. One person told me hers had hundreds of blooms on it. If you were a recipient of my mum sharing I would like to know how yours are doing.
I took some cuttings of mums in the spring for potted plants this fall. They did reasonably well. I neglected to trim them so they are somewhat leggy. Lesson learned, for well shaped plants I must keep them trimmed.
Mums are relative inexpensive and most folks don’t want the bother of wintering them over, but if you have the space and time it is an easy way to have an abundance of fall color.
