Heirloom Mums

When mid-October approaches and the temperatures begin to dip, you know that the end is coming for most of the flowers in the garden. In the single day when temperatures drop below 32 degrees, dahlias, zinnias and pretty much every very tender and cold sensitive variety in the garden die. In that single day, the garden goes from green to brown. EXCEPT for mums. Mums are the QUEEN of Fall plants. They have strong stems and are an incredibly tolerant plant. They can handle temperatures of 100 degrees (with enough water &  shade), and more importantly, they can thrive and bloom in temperatures as low as 20 degrees.

Mum breeding has created the incredibly sturdy varieties of mums (hybrid) that are often found in hardware stores, nurseries and grocery store bouquets. While creating these 'super mums' for the home gardener, some of the heirloom vintage varieties have been pushed aside.

No longer. Nobody puts Baby in a corner!

Heirloom Chrysanthemums - 'Their blooms vary greatly in form, attributing personality to each variety with color palettes that are absolutely endless. We love these plants because of their distinct differences from the mums you often see in grocery stores. On top of that, heirloom mums are so unique because they are long-lost flowers that you simply cannot find anymore unless you go through a collector'. 

This year, on the recommendation of Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm, we began learning more about heirloom mums, and taking it a step further, ordered rooted cutting of some of our favorite varieties.

They arrive mid-April and will all be blooming October - November.

Meet the girls below (photos courtesy of 3 Porch Farm - Comer Georgia) & additional selections from Bluestone Perennials ( photos from Bluestone).