In September and October, you can find a fall Mum almost anywhere. You can find them at the hardware store, the roadside market, the grocery store, and locally owned garden centers. Chrysanthemums are probably the most iconic flower of the fall season and can be easy to grow. When mums are for sale, all the hard work is finished. They are watered, fertilized, pinched, spaced, and sprayed.

When you buy a Mum, watering is all you need to do. If you don’t want to water that much, consider planting your Mums in a slightly larger pot or planting them in the ground. Mums are tender perennials, so if you want them to come back next year, the sooner you plant them, the better. The winter cold may not kill the plant, but overwatering in the winter will, and it’s important the soil drains. Fertilizer isn’t needed once they bud because they are on cruise control, and as the flower finishes blooming, you can pick off the dead flowers. Once the flowers are pruned, they will not have time to bloom again this season.

Now, September is the early part of mums season, so when purchasing Mums, you’ll find that there are early-season bloomers, mid-season bloomers that come later, and even late-season bloomers. A light frost won’t hurt these flowers. However, a hard freeze will stop them for the rest of the season.

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