Not Your Average Mums

At this time of year it’s safe to say that we’re all familiar with mums. They’re available at every garden and home improvement center and grace most front porches. Their colors: golds, burgundies, burnt yellows and coppers, remind us of and emphasize the season–sometimes if only to hasten it along. Often these same mums, perennials by nature are used and disposed of as annuals, torn from planter, border, curb and pot after having served their role. 

There is another type of mum out there, hiding within the pages of your garden catalogs, unable to show you its showy blooms when you’re doing your spring shopping when it’s just a mound of spring-green leaves in a pot. These mums have a graceful habit and have shed the autumnal colors we’re so used to seeing. Allow me to introduce you to garden mums. These mums are meant to be planted in your flower borders and enjoyed year after year. Their colorful blooms and dainty flowers will enliven your garden and soul at a time of year when the natural world is closing in on itself in preparation for the long winter ahead. What’s more, fall is the perfect time to plant them.

According to Burpee, Mammoth Daisy Dark Red and Dark Pink were “developed by the University of Minnesota for vigor and hardiness.” The flowers have left the tight rosette of traditional fall mums behind for a lighter daisy-like appearance and the color, a dark pink, shows up very nicely in the diminishing autumn light. Garden mums are generally hardy to zone 3, though they should be well mulched their first winter to ensure survival. These mums will achieve an ultimate height of 3 feet and spread of 4 feet if left on their own–they’re easily kept smaller if pruned during the growing season.

My favorite of the garden mums is Chrysanthemum, Sheffield Pink. This is the garden mum of the traditional English flower border. Floriferous, hardy and feminine in habit, it flowers reliably every fall with clear pink daisy flowers. The show continues on until several hard frosts put it to bed for the season.