Garden Mums give you a spectacular floral display in your garden from Easter right through until long after Mother’s Day.
Just when the summer garden starts slowing down, Garden Mums step in and completely steal the show. Their masses of flowers bring incredible colour to the autumn garden, with varieties ranging from soft pastels to rich, deep autumn shades.
And the best part? You can cut them and bring them indoors.
Garden Mums make exceptional cut flowers, with a vase life of more than two weeks when harvested and cared for correctly. A few stems can fill a vase, and because the plants produce so generously, you can enjoy the flowers both in the garden and inside your home.
They are also perennial. Look after your plants and they can return year after year, becoming bigger and more impressive with each season.
So, you've ordered your Garden Mums and your parcel has just arrived.
What do you do next?
Step 1: Your Garden Mums Have Arrived
Open your parcel as soon as possible after receiving it.
Your Garden Mums are young, rooted plants, not dormant bulbs or tubers. They have been growing before being packed and have just spent a few days travelling in a dark box, so don't be alarmed if they look a little tired when you first unpack them.
Carefully remove all the packaging and check the growing medium around the roots.
If it still feels moist, don't immediately water it again. If it feels dry, give the plant a gentle but thorough watering and allow the excess water to drain away.
Step 2: Pot It Up First
Even if your Garden Mum will eventually live in the garden, I recommend starting it in a small pot.
A pot approximately 10–15 cm in diameter is ideal for the first stage. Fill it with a good-quality, free-draining potting mixture.
For the first few days, keep your new plants somewhere bright and protected from harsh afternoon sun and strong wind. This gives them a little time to recover from their journey and adjust to their new environment.
After that, gradually harden them off by slowly introducing them to sunshine.
And then the growing begins.
Step 3: Let It Build Roots
For the next two to four weeks, your main goal isn't flowers.
It's roots.
Allow your little plant to establish a strong root system in its small pot before moving it into its permanent home.
You can gently slide the plant out of the pot occasionally to check the roots. Once you can see healthy roots developing around the potting mixture, it is ready for the next step.
Don't leave it in the little pot until it becomes badly root-bound.
Step 4: Plant Your Garden Mum in the Garden
Once your young Garden Mum has developed a healthy root system and is growing strongly, it is ready to be planted into its permanent position in the garden.
Choose a spot with plenty of sunshine and excellent drainage. Garden Mums perform best with at least six hours of sunlight a day. Good light encourages strong, sturdy plants and plenty of flowers later in the season.
Before planting, prepare your soil well. Loosen the soil and work in plenty of well-rotted compost or other good organic matter. Chrysanthemums enjoy fertile soil, but they do not like sitting in water, so drainage is extremely important.
Plant your Garden Mum at approximately the same depth it was growing in its pot. Don't bury the crown deeply.
If you are planting several Garden Mums together, space them approximately 30 to 45 cm apart.
Water them thoroughly after planting to settle the soil around the roots.
From here, your Garden Mum is ready to put on some serious growth.
Step 5: Sunshine, Sunshine, Sunshine
Once established, Garden Mums want light.
Too little sunshine will give you long, soft growth and fewer flowers.
Aim for at least half a day of direct sun, and preferably more where your climate allows it.
Remember that South Africa is a big country. A mum growing in the summer heat of the Northern Cape experiences very different conditions from one growing near Cape Town, Johannesburg or in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
Watch your plants.
If leaves are scorching during extreme heat, some afternoon protection may help. But don't move your chrysanthemums into deep shade because you're worried about the sun.
They are sun lovers.
Step 6: Water Deeply – But Don't Keep Them Soggy
This is probably where more chrysanthemums are lost than anywhere else.
Garden Mums like consistent moisture while they are actively growing, but wet soil and waterlogged roots are a problem.
Water thoroughly and then allow the soil to begin drying before watering again.
Don't simply water because the plant looks wilted.
First put your finger into the soil.
If the plant is wilting and the soil is dry, it probably needs water. If the plant is wilting while the soil is still soaking wet, adding even more water could make the problem worse. Wilting in wet soil can be an indication of root rot.
Step 7: Feeding Your Garden Mums
Chrysanthemums are hungry plants.
They have to produce a substantial amount of foliage before producing all those flowers, so regular feeding during active growth makes a noticeable difference.
At planting time, you can incorporate a suitable balanced slow-release fertiliser according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Once your plants are actively growing, regular liquid feeding can also be beneficial.
During the vegetative stage, you want to encourage strong, healthy growth.
But once your mums begin developing flower buds and those buds start showing colour, ease back on high-nitrogen feeding. At this stage we want the plant concentrating on its flowers rather than trying to produce masses of new leafy growth.
And remember: more fertiliser isn't always better.
Follow the recommended rates on your fertiliser. Too much fertiliser can damage roots and create soft, excessive growth.
Step 8: Before You Pinch – Know Your Variety
Not all Garden Mums should be treated the same when it comes to pinching.
Some varieties benefit from regular pinching because it encourages them to branch and develop into full, bushy plants covered in flowers. Other varieties need very little pinching – or none at all – depending on how you want to grow them.
If your goal is to grow tall, strong stems with one spectacular, extra-large flower per stem, don't keep pinching the plant. These varieties should generally be pinched no more than once, if at all, so that they can put their energy into producing those long stems and impressive blooms.
Other Garden Mums can be pinched to encourage more branching, giving you a fuller plant with many flowering stems.
This is why it is important to check the growing information for your specific variety before you start pinching. There isn't one pinching rule that works for every Garden Mum.
Once you've pinched a growing tip, you can't put it back — so check first, scissors second!
Step 9: When Should We Stop Pinching in South Africa?
Chrysanthemums respond strongly to day length, and flowering is triggered as the nights become sufficiently long. Temperature and cultivar also influence exactly when flowering occurs.
For us, the important principle is this:
Pinch while you are building your plant, then stop pinching well before 31 December.
Your final pinch gives those new shoots time to grow, mature and eventually form flowers.
If you continue pinching too late, you are literally pinching away the stems that would have produced your flowers.
Our aim is to build strong, bushy plants through spring and early summer and then allow them to move naturally towards flowering as the days begin to shorten.
Step 10: Do Garden Mums Need Staking?
Some do.
Compact garden varieties may support themselves beautifully, but taller chrysanthemums can become surprisingly large.
And once those stems are carrying masses of flowers, a summer thunderstorm or strong wind can turn your beautiful mum into a rather horizontal mum overnight.
Add stakes or plant supports before you desperately need them.
It is much easier to guide stems through support while they're growing than to try to rescue a mature plant that has collapsed.
Step 11: Watch for Pests
Healthy, vigorously growing chrysanthemums are fairly easy plants, but there are a few unwanted visitors worth watching for.
Keep an eye out for:
- Aphids
- Thrips
- Spider mites
Good airflow around your plants is also important.
Avoid constantly wet foliage and overcrowded plants, particularly in humid parts of South Africa.
Step 12: And Then Come the Flowers
This is the moment you have been waiting for.
In South Africa, your Garden Mums can start flowering as early as Easter and continue right through until the end of May. Exactly when they bloom will depend largely on the variety you are growing.
Garden Mums are generally classified as early-, mid- or late-flowering varieties. This means that if you grow a selection from each flowering group, you can enjoy chrysanthemums over a wonderfully long autumn flowering season.
As the days become shorter, your plants naturally begin moving from leafy growth into flower production. Buds start appearing, and before long those plants you have been nurturing all summer are covered in blooms.
This is when Garden Mums really steal the show in the autumn garden.
And don't forget to cut them! Garden Mums make exceptional cut flowers, so you can enjoy armfuls of blooms in the garden while bringing plenty indoors for the vase.
After Flowering – They are not done!
This is one of my favourite things about chrysanthemums.
That beautiful plant is not finished when the last flowers fade.
Garden Mums are perennial plants and multiply every year. You only have to buy plant material once.
Once flowering has finished and the plant begins dying back, reduce watering and allow it to move naturally towards dormancy.
The old stems can eventually be cut back.
And then wait.
When conditions are right again, new shoots will begin appearing from the base of the plant.
Those little shoots are the beginning of next year's chrysanthemums.
Established plants can eventually be divided, and suitable new shoots can also be used for propagation.
One little plant can become the beginning of a whole collection.
A Simple South African Garden Mum Calendar
Spring – September to November:
Order your new young Garden Mum plants, pot them up, transplant them into the garden, feed regularly and begin pinching varieties that need it to encourage branching. This is also the perfect time to divide your existing chrysanthemums and replant them for another season of beautiful autumn flowers.
Early summer – November to December:
Plants should be growing vigorously. Continue shaping and supporting them while maintaining good nutrition and consistent watering. Stop pinching before 31 December.
Mid to late summer – January to February:
Allow plants to develop towards their flowering phase. Do not pinch anymore and let the flowering stems mature.
Autumn – March to May:
This is the exciting part. Buds begins to develop and your plants move into their main flowering period, depending on cultivar, climate and local conditions.
Winter – June to August:
Plants rest. Protect plants in very cold or frost-prone regions and avoid keeping dormant crowns unnecessarily wet.
Then spring arrives, shoots begin to appear and we start all over.
A Flower Worth Waiting For
There is something very special about Garden Mums. They spend the summer quietly growing in the background, and then, just as so many other flowers in the garden begin to slow down, they take centre stage.
From Easter through to the end of May, depending on the varieties you grow, they can fill your autumn garden with an incredible display of flowers. And because they are such wonderful cut flowers, you get to enjoy that abundance indoors too.
Best of all, this isn't necessarily a one-season love affair. Your chrysanthemums can return year after year, and as your collection grows, you can divide your plants and fill more and more of your garden with them.
Plant a few different varieties, choose a mix of early, mid- and late-flowering Garden Mums, and autumn may just become your favourite flowering season.
Happy growing!
She who loves dahlias, and apparently mums too,
Mareli