Welcome to our weekly Plant Exchange. We’re enjoying the color in trees and grasses and thinking there should be more fall color in our yard.
There’s this mum problem. Color looks fine in containers in the front yard. They’re ready to brighten the yard for the weekend the moment you buy them. The price of the mums at the box store is great. But after a couple of weeks in early September, the mums look like this. And it isn’t even fall yet!
This mum’s color lasted more the length of time of a cut flower, than a perennial! To be fair, I did pay the price of an annual. A couple of nights with temperatures in the 50’s must have taken a toll. It’s not hardy, for sure. Before I learned the hard way that container mums can’t survive the winter in this region. So I have tried planting these container mums in the ground later in the fall over the years without success. No overwinter survival.
In another area of the same yard, mums that were planted in June years ago are just coming into bloom.
Jay Gurney of Yankton Nurseries and his son Mike discuss mums and why our perennial mums come back.
http://www.yankton.net/river_city/article_d3503c88-70b9-11e6-b5f0f3c61a1e3fb8.html
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