I have been asked a thousand times "Are these hardy mums?" or "Will these mums come back next year?"
If you buy your mums early in the season and plant them in the ground right away, they will have time to grow roots before the killing frost comes. So this makes for a better chance for the mum to survive winter. If the mum survives, then the next growing season, pinch the tips pf the growing shoots off repeatedly until July4. After that, leave them alone and they will bloom in the fall. Regular fertilizing is also quite helpful throughout the growing season until they set flower buds, then lay off the fertilizer.
The next best way to get "hardy mums" is to plant asters instead of chrysanthemums! Asters are extremely hardy, since they are a native prairie wildflower and have survived the elements for centuries. The blooms are daisy-like and closely resemble a mum. The only hitch is that color is limited to purple and pink to reddish hues. Yellow daisy-like flowers for fall can be aquired by planting Heliopsis or Helianthus, which are perennial sunflowers. I know that you can pinch aster plants just like mum plants to delay flowering and to make the plants stay shorter. I'll have to get back to you later on whether or not heliopsis can be treated the same way.
Asters can be purchased at garden centers with large perennial inventories in the spring like Wilson's in Frankfort. Or you can mail order them.
In closing, I can tell you there is nothing any easier to grow than asters!!!
If you buy your mums early in the season and plant them in the ground right away, they will have time to grow roots before the killing frost comes. So this makes for a better chance for the mum to survive winter. If the mum survives, then the next growing season, pinch the tips pf the growing shoots off repeatedly until July4. After that, leave them alone and they will bloom in the fall. Regular fertilizing is also quite helpful throughout the growing season until they set flower buds, then lay off the fertilizer.
The next best way to get "hardy mums" is to plant asters instead of chrysanthemums! Asters are extremely hardy, since they are a native prairie wildflower and have survived the elements for centuries. The blooms are daisy-like and closely resemble a mum. The only hitch is that color is limited to purple and pink to reddish hues. Yellow daisy-like flowers for fall can be aquired by planting Heliopsis or Helianthus, which are perennial sunflowers. I know that you can pinch aster plants just like mum plants to delay flowering and to make the plants stay shorter. I'll have to get back to you later on whether or not heliopsis can be treated the same way.
Asters can be purchased at garden centers with large perennial inventories in the spring like Wilson's in Frankfort. Or you can mail order them.
In closing, I can tell you there is nothing any easier to grow than asters!!!
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