Marvelous mums

Choosing color, flower shape is most important decision for landscape.

The gardener's synonym for fall is the hardy garden mum. I can think of no other plant that the general public would equate with fall to the extent that they do with the hardy garden mum.

There are some decisions you need to make when you are selecting mums. Of course, the most obvious is color. You can find them ranging from red to orange, yellow, white, lavender and purple. You can surely find a color that compliments your landscape.

Your second decision relates to flower shape. Cushion mums are double-flowered forms with a compact growth habit that is usually less than 20 inches tall. Decorative mums are similar to cushion mums, but they are usually taller than cushions. Daisy mums are single, daisy-like flowers with yellow centers. Pompons and button mums have small, ball-shaped blooms and vegetatively are usually less than 18 inches tall. Other forms such as football mums, spider mums and spoon mums are generally not hardy in the region.

Finally, you must select early, mid-season or late season flowering varieties. Flowering response of fall blooming mums is triggered by night length. When late summer nights reach a certain length, the critical night length, then flowering is triggered. Early blooming varieties require fewer weeks of critical night length than late-flowering varieties.

You may be a homeowner who purchases hardy garden mums with the idea of using them only as annuals. You take them home, place them in a decorative container on the front porch, water them until we have several hard frosts, and then pitch them. Next fall you repeat the cycle.

If, on the other hand, you want to plant these gorgeous perennials in a favorite niche in your landscape, there are some things that you need to keep in mind. Garden mums are hardy only if their roots are well established in their new landscape before cold weather sets in. In order to ensure survival for the first winter, you must plant your new mums early in the fall, preferably before the end of October. The exact cut off time will be dictated by how early cold weather sets in.

Mums like full sun. Make sure that your planting location will be exposed to six or seven hours of daylight. The more daylight, the better hardy mums seem to grow.

You must also remember that hardy mums have aggressive root systems. When you take mums out of the containers they are grown in, you will usually see that the long, closely packed roots are growing in a circle.

The configuration of root growth must be disrupted, or mum roots will continue to grow in a circle after planting. Very few roots will penetrate the new soil. Immediately before planting, I generally shoot a jet of water at the root and wash off some of the potting soil surrounding the roots. The results is free roots that can now be teased into the new soil.

Mums prefer well-drained soils. Therefore incorporate peat moss in your planting bed. Use two-thirds soil to one-third peat. After planting, apply a root stimulator to the newly planted mums in order to encourage rapid root development.

Next spring as mum vegetation begins to emerge above the ground from their roots, keep cutting them back to 2 or 3 inches above the soil line until the Fourth of July. Then let them grow on their own.

The reason for continual pruning is enhance compact growth and proliferate the number of flower buds. Without pruning, plants will become leggy , and they probably produce a few flowers in the late spring or early summer, which will reduce plant and flower quality for the fall.

You also should be aware that mums are heavy feeders. After the last pruning, fertilize the growing mums every other week with a balanced fertilizer. Plant size will be drastically increased with adequate fertilization.

I hope the above information helps you in developing a mum garden in your landscape. If, on the other hand, you prefer to handle mums as annuals I hope that this information will broaden your knowledge of one of God's great treasures -- the hardy garden mum.

Send your gardening and landscape questions to Paul Schnare at P.O. Box 699; Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63702-0699 or by e-mail to news@semissourian.com.