Looking for a way to save those gorgeous and extremely expensive potted mums from your autumn displays this fall to use again next year?
Mums have certainly soared in price over the past few years. And with the way prices have continued to rise, that is a trend that is likely not going to end anytime soon. So why not start saving all of those beautiful mums and keep those hard earned dollars in your bank account!
Not only can you save the mums in your pots and containers from year to year, doing so is easier than you could ever imagine. With that in mind – here is a look at the four simple steps to save your container mums this year with ease!
4 Simple Steps To Save Your Potted Mums This Fall!
#1 Don’t Let Your Mums Freeze
Most important of all – if you want to save the mums you have growing in your pots and containers, you can’t let them freeze out first! A hard frost or a light freeze will injure mums quite easily. And once the damage occurs, the plants usually die off or weaken beyond saving.
Unfortunately, fall decorating season usually coincides with frosts and freezes. With this in mind, it’s extremely important to protect your mums on cold nights. If cold temperatures are in the forecast, cover or move them indoors. And once decorating season is over – act fast to get them indoors for the winter!
#2 Preparing Mums For Indoor Life – How To Save Potted Mums
One of the best things about saving mums indoors in the winter is they don’t require a lot of space or care. Unlike ferns and other container plants that can continue to grow indoors as a houseplant through winter, mums can be cut back and allowed to go completely dormant. (See: How To Grow Ferns Indoors As A Houseplant)
When bringing mums indoors, the first order of business is to cut them back. Allowing all of the foliage and spent blooms to remain is not only messy, it can cause mold and mildew issues for the plant over winter as well.
The easiest and quickest way to cut back your mums is with a pair of hedge shears. Simply shear back the canopy off the plant, and leave about three to four inches of stems to remain. Product Affiliate Link : Garden Hedge Shears
Once your mums are cut back, it’s now time to decide how and where you will store them for the winter!
#3 Storing Mums Indoors Over The Winter – How To Save Potted Mums
There are a couple of ways to store dormant mums inside through the winter months. Obviously, where you store them is important – and we will get to that in a moment – but first you will need to decide how to store them.
You can either keep your mums in their existing pots or take them out and store the root balls and stems separately. The choice really depends on how much storage space you have and how big your mums are.
Obviously, the easiest way for storing is to leave the mums in their pots over the winter. For mums in small pots, this is fairly easy. You simply clean the pots and move them in. But in some situations, your containers might be large and heavy – making it difficult to bring indoors or to find available space.
In these situations, taking the mums out of their pot is often the better choice. The good news is that by late fall, nearly all mums growing in pots have developed an extensive root network. So much so that the root ball can almost always easily be lifted out of the container in tact.
Since the mums will remain dormant all season, for large containers, simply remove the root ball and place down in a cardboard box or plastic tub. When using cardboard, it is best to first line the bottom with a plastic bag as it will help to keep moisture in. You can actually place several root balls into the same container.
#4 Finding The Best Location For Winter Storing – How To Save Potted Mums
Now it’s time to cover where to store and how to care for your mums over the winter months. The key to success with mums indoors in the winter is to keep them dormant – but safe. To do this, you need to find a dark but cool location.
A basement is the best first choice. An insulated but non-heated garage is good as well. If neither of these are available, the next best place is to find a room of your house that remains fairly dark and is cool.
As for winter care – keeping mums inside couldn’t be more easy. The only requirement beyond low lighting and cool temperatures is to keep them slightly damp. For most, this means lightly watering the root ball every few weeks.
As long as your mums have a slight bit of moisture, they will survive in their dormant stage. Then as winter fades and early spring temperatures start to warm, you can bring them back outside to grow once again.
Bringing Mums Back To Life In The Spring – How To Save Potted Mums
When bringing your mums outdoors in the spring, make sure to wait until all threat of frost is gone. You can either replant them into pots or directly into flowerbeds. The good thing about planting into your flowerbeds is that once established, they can handle future winters with little worry.
If you happen to have overly large mums, this is also the time to divide them into multiple plants. Dividing not only keeps mums strong, it allows you to have more plants for free. Plants that are great for placing into the landscape – or creating even more potted mums!
When potting your mums, even if you stored your mums in their original pots, you will want to repot them with new soil. The nutrients in the old soil are likely lacking power from last year’s growing efforts. Unfortunately, allowing them to grow in the old soil will result in lackluster plants with few if any blooms.
Cutting Back Mums In The Summer…
Once your mums begin to grow, you will want to cut them back in early summer. If you don’t they will bloom far earlier in the year and not in the fall. Simply take your shears once again and cut the plants back in late July to within three to four inches of the ground.
The mums will regrow with tighter foliage and bloom sets to be ready to explode with color as autumn arrives. Here is to saving your potted mums – and stretching your autumn decorating budget even more next year!
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