The Color of Mums

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jkramer Saint Charles, IL(Zone 5a) Oct 02, 2005

Last fall I planted all the potted mums that my wife had used for outside autumn decor. Of the six I planted, only three survived the winter, but they grew beautifully this summer. The curious thing is that the flowers on all three are the same -- a dark red -- despite the fact that only one of the original plants was that color. I know that one was a Belgian mum (Atlantico Orange), which also flowered deep red, not orange-yellow. Any ideas as to why this might happen?
Jack

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Baa Oct 02, 2005

Chrysanthemum are very hybridized and this can cause some colour and bloom shape mutations hence such a huge variety of Chrysanthemum that are available.

A change of flower colour in a garden situation can be caused by many factors such as soil and/or air chemicals and nutrients both naturally present or added, wobbly pigment genes etc. A more banal but not beyond the realms of possibility explanation could be that there were two different coloured plants in the pot and the dark red colour was the stronger and younger of the two.

If you have the cultivar names of all of them you could check them to see if they are related cultivars, colour sports that become named cultivars are common and Chrysanthemums can show revision and sporting all on the same plant during one season.

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