How to keep your Mums looking their best in the cooler months. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Fall-blooming Mums are great perennials that will brighten up your porch as the weather gets cooler. Plus, you can overwinter them indoors if you want to add your potted mums to your garden in spring.
Just be sure to pick carefully when buying mums at your local grocery. These plants often get under, or overwatered, which stresses the plants so they won’t perform as well for you. For best results, ask when a store is getting a new shipment in and go first thing that day to get the cream of the crop. Always repot a purchased potted mum plant when you get it home. Replant the mums in a container larger than the one it came in so the roots have room to spread out and breathe. Choose a spot that gets at least six hours of sun a day. And, be sure to water newly planted mums thoroughly, and never let them wilt.
Before freezing weather occurs, give the mums you hope to overwinter a high phosphorus fertilizer to stimulate root growth. Then, once the first hard frost hits, move your plants inside or into an unheated garage.
Listen to Cathy Isom’s This Land of Ours program here.