I bought 3 pots of mums last fall (2 yellow and a burnt orange color) just to set in front garden. Eventually they lost their color and I just let them sit over the winter. I thought they were dead, to be honest.
Now I see that there is green popping out at base of these things.
Do I trim off all the old dead stuff and just start watering them?
Are these plants normally perennials here, so that I could plant them in the yard somewhere, or are they best left in pots so I can bring them in when we get some real winter weather?
Do I need to divide them or are they okay as is?
Thanks!
LiseP
chrysanthemums
I always cut off the dead stuff and they come back from the ground. Mine are planted in the ground and yes they come back year after year. There are different varieties, so that may make a difference, but for me all seem to come back about the same.
Same here, they come back. When they start getting leggy, just whack the tops back and you'll get a more compact, dense plant with more blooms.
Great, shuggins and crowelli. Thanks for the info! LiseP
I don't usually go by date, but wait until they put the first bloom buds on and then whack them pretty good. Then they set another set almost immediately, but 2 to 3 times as many as initially cut off. The first time I was told about this and tried it, I really had a hard time cutting all the buds off, but it worked so well that it's the way I always do them now. Mine usually bloom 3 or more times a year here in Houston. They've already done one full bloom cycle in January. I've cut them almost to the ground and fed them and they'll have put buds on shortly, which I'll pinch back. The next blooms will likely be in late March. That will probably do it for them until the fall, but depending on the temps, I can usually get two full bloom cycles then too.
Crow, I just must see your garden. Blooms and everything in January. Geeeeeez! I thought I was doing good to get 2 bloom cycles out of mums each year. Your way of disbudding sounds great. Do you do that w/any other flowers?
Ann
I need to take a couple of pics of the front and post them. Nobody would believe they were taken in Early Feb. Even I cannot believe how much color and blooms I have. There are a few early iris open, tons of petunias, allysum, dianthus, hibiscus, lobelia, begonias and the salvias are going nuts with a profusion of deep blue blooms. Even my brug is in full bloom and the roses too. I have dragon wing begonias with panicles of pink blooms hanging down a full 6 inches long. The Mexican Flame Vine is a wall of orange and smells so good. This warm winter really gave my stuff a jump start this year. I can hardly wait for the lilies to start!
If I had to give one single tip on gardening, it would be "Ozmocote". I have a friend in Conroe who said she could never get her stuff to do as well as mine. I told her try the Ozmocote and she couldn't believe the difference. She'd always used Miracle Grow. That Ozmocote is great stuff. Throw out a handful and jump back!
If the rainy mist clears up, I'll try to get a couple of pics and post them.
I'm with you on the Osmocote! Love that stuff and just got a new container yesterday. I don't think that the previous owners fertilized their plants and over-fertilized their grass or at least put on a very high amount of Nitrogen. The grass was long when we moved in and when we bought it but the nice green and height only lasted about 6 weeks. So, it's my turn to try and do something w/the soil and plants and grass. Hope I do at least as well as they did. Where's that picture of your yard? We all need to see what you have done and what it is doing. I'm sure it is beautiful.
Ann
So how often do you apply the Osmocote? I have the stuff, but seem to have a mental block against applying it. Do you have to dig it in or literally just toss it out onto the soil? Now would be a perfect time, because I haven't put out new mulch yet, so there a lot of bare dirt.
Well, shuggins, there are directions on the label and I usually follow labels but in this case I use them as a guide. I use handfuls. My hand will hold appox. 1/2 C. I broadcast for the most part. I think it says it lasts 4-6 months but I don't believe them. In hot weather I may wait about half that time. In wet weather that's hot I wait a little longer. It's kind of like cooking: to taste, so to speak. I would follow the instructions if you can. I used to follow them but as time went on I got to the point where I could "guesstimate" how much and where. Right now I'm going to go back to the instructions since I haven't used this stuff in awhile. Fertilizer is rather expensive so you might want to back off and use less and you might get a longer life out of a container. Hope this helps. Crow will probably be back on and give you the correct answer.
Ann
Rain this afternoon and then 3 yr old grandson kept me away from the camera today. Promise to try tomorrow to get a current one on here.
On the Ozmocote, I do like you Ann, just grab a handful and throw it out. The only plants I use something else on are the roses where I additionally throw a handful of epson salts and a handful of Bayer Rose which has some systemic goodies in it. I also use Miracle Grow a couple of times a year on the Brugs. The Ozmocote is time released, so the brug won't bloom until I hit it with the Miracle Grow. Other than that, it's Ozmocote on it all. As to how often, I do it more than it says on the instructions. I apply it about every 6 to 8 weeks. Now if I could only find something that would get rid of dollar weed and nut grass.........
Crow
I finally got around to taking a pic of the front bed. Sorry it's taken me so long to post this.
Other side of walkway.
Crow...Great pics. Can't believe that is your yard now, mine doesn't have anything blooming except some verbena and that is because I just put it in.
What is the white blooming at the front and is it an annual that you just put in or does it stay year around? I need something like that.
Crow, that is an uplifting picture.(s) You Sweet Allisum is awesome. Isn't it a shame that it won't last thru the whole summer? There really isn't anything that I am aware of that grows so beautifully and fills in the front to kind of finish off the bed - at least down here. Is that lobelia in the front of the border, too? I planted lobelia last fall and it did so well that I wish I had had more and I didn't use it in the front like you did but it did spread nicely and stay close to the ground. Is that the B&B that you say you can't get rid of in the first picture in front of the pink rose? Those beds are just great.
I finally got my beds on either side of the front walt done last Friday afternoon. That sago was a beast to get out and these guys are used to the work. Thanks goodness they took it w/them. And the two clumps of iris turned out to be both the African and ?Louisiana planted together in the same clump, twice. That was a job, too. I put the biggest cutting that has rooted of the Confederate Rose in the one bed and semi-circled around it w/the Tiffany roses. They are small right now but will grow bigger and form a "hedge". When the weather gets a little warmer I plan broadcast the cleome and pink cosmos. They had already sold out of the yellow cosmos seeds. And I still want to move a small berryless nandina over to the driveway side to fill in there. They are so beautifully red when they out in the open. The one I want to move is in the shade too much so didn't get nice and red like the others. I also managed to use the osmocote and the snail /slug bait that you told me about (Lowe's). I found 2 monster snails while we were working in the beds. Hope this stuff works! On the yellow side I put in a 6 pack of yellow marigolds and have some seed of some that are orange/yellow stripped that I will plant later when it's warmer. I was exhausted at the end of the afternoon but the work we got done was worth it.
Ann
Shuggins, the low growing white plant is allysum. It is a cool weather annual here. It will start to struggle as soon as the temps heat up and the sun gets more intense. It doesn't show there, but I put in a huge amount of daylilies and then just kind of stuffed the allysum in between so I could have some color until the daylilies can get started.
Ann, the blue in between is lobelia. I have some of the pink/purple allysum too, but the white seems much more vigorous. That salvia is either Mystic Spires or Indigo Spires and is very well behaved. I'm still pulling out sprouts of that Black & Blue one. Devil plant is what it should have been called!
I've spent most of the morning digging out nut grass, planting a flat of impatiens, planted 4 tomato plants and trimmed back the flame vine and duranta. That duranta is too happy where it is. It'd take over the world if I didn't chop it back pretty often. I'm waiting another week or so to put in my butterbeans. The bed the tomatoes and bearns are in will also have some herbs and flowers.
Here's my first bloom to open on my LA iris. I have some yellow ones in the back garden that are starting to open today too.
Hi all. I'm so glad you guys told me to take those pretty dead-looking potted chrysanthemums, cut them down to the base and plant them. I did that back in Feb and all three looks good and have buds ready to bloom. Here's a photo of just one of them. I'm so pleased!
But in reviewing this thread -- are folks advising me to cut off all of these buds? Since I already did cut everything back in February (although there were no blooms, just dead leggy stuff from the previous fall), I am thinking maybe I've already done the first round of pruning, and well, I'm not sure where I am in the cycle that was described in the first few posts on this thread.
I'd obviously just as soon enjoy these flowers, but if it's best for the plant to cut the buds off for an even better display later, well, okay. (But wah, can't I enjoy the flowers first?)
Thanks for your comments.
LiseP
