I love, love, love fall! As the temps drop it’s finally time to pull out the boots, and sweaters and layer on scarves and jackets. The trees are flaunting their vibrant fall colors with explosions of beautiful reds, oranges and yellows everywhere you look. Autumn is by far the most beautiful and colorful season! It’s also when Mums burst into full bloom with their splashy, bright colors. They make a show stopping appearance for just a few weeks each year. We treat them as annuals, but Chrysanthemums (often called Mums) are actually perennials and with the proper care you can get them to bloom year after year. You can stop buying expensive Chrysanthemum plants each year and tossing them out after they are done blooming for a few short weeks. There are actually easy things you can do to ensure that those plants remain compact and bushy, and re-bloom with hundreds of blossoms each autumn. Keep reading to find out how.
Chrysanthemums, sometimes called Mums or Chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center of diversity is in China. Countless horticultural varieties and cultivars exist.
If you are willing to spend a little time caring for those plants throughout the year, you will be able to enjoy a profusion of blossoms on compact, bushy plants year after year each autumn. When your Mum plants are finished blooming in the fall dead head your plants and remove all the spent blossoms. I use a sharp pair of hand clippers to make quick work of this.
Water them when the soil feels dry to the touch through the winter months. I live in Northern California (Zone 9) so I do not have snow to contend with. Mums may not survive the winter outside in the elements if you live in a very cold climate. You can protect them from hard freezes and frost by moving them to a sheltered area like a shed, the garage, or a barn, or cover them with old towels or sheets during the coldest winter months.
In the spring when new growth appears it’s time to start pinching them back.
Pinch off the new tender growth at the end of each stem. The new growth is soft and tender and I just pinch them off with my thumbnail. You could use hand clippers or scissors, but I find it quick and easy to just use my fingers to do this.
This is where you want to pinch off the tips; where the red arrows are pointing to.
Just pinch off the top cluster of leaves at the end of each stem on the plant.
This is where I pinched off the tender leaves at the end of the stem in the picture below. See the cluster on the right? That needs to be pinched off as well.
Pinching off the tender new growth on the end of the stems will encourage more growth on each stem. Instead of just one blossom on the end of each stem, you will encourage the plant to produce multiple shoots on each stem. Each shoot will produce a bloom. The more you pinch back the new growth the more blooms you will get on each stem; just like you see in the picture below.
IMPORTANT: Pinch back new growth every two to three weeks during the spring and early summer months when you see new growth at the end of each stem to keep the plants compact and bushy and encourage more blossoms to form. 🛑 Stop pinching off any new growth after July 4th. 🛑
Regularly pinching back the new growth will result in Mums covered in hundreds and hundreds of blossoms in the fall. Not only will you be rewarded with hundreds of blooms, but the plants will stay nice and compact too. Nobody wants long lanky stems that will flop over and need staking.
Be sure to save this post so you know how to care for those Mum plants after they finish blooming this year. If you follow these easy steps you will be enjoying them again next year when autumn returns. Plus you’ll save loads of money not having to buy new plants every year. I don’t know about you but I love saving money!
You will be rewarded with hundreds of blossoms if you regularly pinch back the tender new growth until July 4th. Then all that’s left to do is water them regularly and wait for hundreds of those bright, beautiful, colorful blooms to appear!
Have You Tried This?
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“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
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