Is your mum beginning to fade and look like this?
Mums are turning multi-colored these days; but not because the variety is a new color-changing cultivar. Although they're still blooming and look healthy; most blooms on chrysanthemum are either fading, or turning colors. This former bright-yellow mum is turning pink, because just like the gorgeous fall foliage, it’s getting ready to die back for the winter. If you purchased florist mums; based on the weather in the Northeast, they’re on their way out, so bring them inside. Any temperatures under 60 degrees seals their fate because they’re an annual mum grown in a greenhouse; they don’t do very well outside in the late fall. Florist mums and perennial mums come from the same original mum grown in China; except the florist mums are basically for show and decorating outside for short-term use. They must be brought inside now, if they haven’t been already. Florist mums don’t have stolons, which are needed for cold-weather survival.
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Under the top layer of blooms are hidden buds - Half of this mum has been deadhead
Perennial mums are ready for a careful haircut. Gardeners can deadhead or pinch off the fading buds; and low and behold, underneath the canopy blooms, are buds, lots and lots of buds, just waiting to get some sun and oxygen. Once the first blooms begin to fade, pinch off each bloom carefully; and underneath, a second layer of blooms should be waiting. Don’t use pruners or shears; it’s better to use your fingers and pinch one spent bloom at a time so that you don’t mistakenly cut off new underlying buds. Mums should bloom and last through Thanksgiving.
The mum has now been completely deadheaded to expose buds for a second bloom
Keep mums watered, but water in the pot and not on the foliage because the dense flower blooms will seal water under the canopy and down inside the mum which will cause mold. When deadheading your mums for a second bloom; if you spot any black or gray fuzzy mold, remove the entire branch carefully as not to spread the spores.
Once the mums are completely done blooming, cut them back to the ground, water them, and then mulch with wood chips or leaves for the winter. Next year, your mums should begin to grow again, and you won’t have to worry about them until the 4th of July, when you pinch the budding stems back for a fuller-blooming and bushier plant in September.
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