Garden Mum Care

With Garden Mum Care, become an Garden Mum Expert with these planting instructions and the use of pinching and division.

Care and Cultivation

Become an Expert Mum Gardener!

Planting Instructions

• Choose a well-drained location where the mums receive five hours of sun per day.
• Dig the hole twice as wide and only as deep as the container. Space garden mums in flower in the fall based on plant size.
• Remove from the plastic container and place the mum into the hole onto undisturbed soil. The top of the root mass should be level with the soil grade.
• Backfill with a mixture of soil from hole and Cotton Burr Compost. Pack the soil mixture firmly around the root mass.
• Cover the planting area and the top of the root mass with mulch. Cypress and Cedar mulch are all at Oak Creek Nursery.
• Fertilize with root stimulator, every two weeks until buds crack open. Repeat monthly in the growing season.
• Water thoroughly at plating, amount and frequency will vary by size, weather and soil conditions. Ask a salesperson for more specific instructions.

Divide and Conquer

Pinching

To encourage branching and development of compact bushy plants, it is very important to pinch backs your garden mums in the spring as soon as the new growth is 4-6 inches tall. Use your thumbnail and index finger to remove or “pinch” about ½ of the new growth at the top each and every shoot.

Repeat the procedure through the summer whenever new shoots are 3-5 inches long. Stop pinching around the 4th of July.

Division

Chrysanthemums sometimes become crowded in the garden. The old, center portion of the plant dies back and the new growth occurs around the perimeter of the clump. Renovating chrysanthemum clumps every 3 or 4 years will encourage healthy growth, neat plant growth habit, and continued flowering.

When new shoots appear in the spring, dig the entire clump. Use a sharp spade or knife to cut the clump into wedge shaped sections, like a pie. Remove and discard the point of the wedge (this is the oldest part of the clump.) Plant the new plants, “wedges”, 18 to 24 inches apart at the depth they were growing.

Winter Survival Tips

1. After first hard frost, cover plant with mulch, leaving stalks as an insulator.
2. In early spring, cut off old growth to ground level.
3. As flower buds appear in spring, pinch off the growing tips for a late season bloom.
4. Stop pinching off the growing tips for a late season bloom.
5. Divide your mums every 3 to 4 years.