survival of hardy mums

by Shirley Johnson
(Dayton, Ohio USA)

my mums did not come back this year, planted in the ground or in the pot. After growing season should mums be cut level to ground or to soil level or left along?


Doug says that this is a tragic tale of garden advertising gone bad. The sad truth is that many so-called "hardy garden mums" aren't. If they have a name that starts with "min" as in Minlake or Minred - then you can expect this Minnesota bred plant should be relatively hardy. Some of the species mums are also quite hardy (often sold as Japanese mums)

Other than those, most mums at garden centers are chosen for their coloring or their growth habit and not their hardiness.

Do not expect so-called hardy mums to survive in containers in Ohio. It's way too cold for the average mum in the average winter. Dig them out of the container and plant them in the garden.

You'll need great drainage, several inches of mulch to stop the freeze-thaw cycle, good snow cover and a hardy variety to get them to survive in the garden.

But it all starts with finding the hardy varieties. Without those, all the other stuff you're going to want to do is irrelevant.