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Grow with KARE: Caring for your mums

From picking the best ones at the store to keeping them blooming their best at home, here are some tips and tricks for mums this fall.

We are into mum season and to have yours looking the best, here’s a list of tips to care for them:

  • It starts at the garden center. Purchase a mum that has buds, not blooms. Once a mum is in full bloom it has about two weeks worth of beauty left. Buying one with tight buds means you have a long season of flowering yet ahead of you.
  • Consider buying a Minnesota hardy mum too! After fall container season is over, plant your mum directly in the ground to come back year after year.
  • Once you bring your mum home give it a cool shady or partly shady spot. Yes mums thrive in full sun, but that energy and heat speeds up the blooming process as a whole. The blooms will develop quicker, but also end up fading quicker than a mum you place in the shade. The difference between a mum in the sun and a mum in the shade can be up to two weeks.
  • Repotting is sometimes a good idea, especially if your mum is rootbound in the pot. Fresh soil and a little more wiggle room isn’t a bad idea.
  • Last up, but just as important is watering. Even though temperatures are cooler, the air gets drier in the fall as well and that can take moisture away from your mum. Consistency is key. Stick your finger in the soil. If it’s dry give the pot a good watering until water is freely running out the bottom of the pot. Water the soil directly and don’t assume that if it rained the water made it through the thick leaves and flowers all the way to the soil and roots.

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