I’m officially head over heels in love with heirloom mums. Not the "ball shaped, grow in a pot on your front porch next to pumpkins" varieties, but the "OMG that is the most beautiful flower I have ever seen" varieties! There are so many different forms and colors available…as long as we don’t get hit with a hard frost, I should have flowers for at least another 2-3 weeks!
First of all, there are sooo many different colors and forms out there. It would be really easy for me to go nuts and try to collect as many as possible, but then I wouldn't have room to grow anything else. Maybe that's not a terrible idea? I could be a mum farmer...but then I would miss tulips and dahlias and ranunculus and...
Second of all, unlike dahlias - these beauties have a 2 week plus vase life! I've tested this myself on many occasions and it's unreal how long these flowers will last! I never feel guilty selling a mum bouquet because I know it is going to last and last in your home...even if you don't do water changes and stem trims from time to time.
Third of all, they are pre-programmed by mother nature to bloom at different times of the season. Generally speaking they bloom in Fall, but there are early, mid and late blooming varieties, and that is how I’ve been able to keep this flower season going.
The plants themselves are frost tolerant, but if a plant happens to be in bud during a frost, the flowers will likely be ruined so the late blooming varieties are always a gamble for me. I don’t have a high tunnel (still need an actual farm for that...) to protect them and some varieties grow to 4-5 ft tall so covering them with frost cloth is difficult to do without damaging the plants. Considering those two facts, an early frost could take a late blooming variety out before they even had a chance to fully bloom. But this year, we’ve been lucky and have avoided a frost so far…
Third of all - you can propagate them through cuttings! So as long as you don't kill the mother plant, you will be able to take multiple cuttings from her for next seasons blooms. I've read that you shouldn't use the mother plant for multiple seasons as the bloom quality will be diminished - I've never tried that so I can't peak from experience. Why risk it? It's super easy to take and grow cuttings so that's my plan!
Sounds great! But no flower is perfect...
One big downside is that they can be major aphid magnets, but I’ve found that dried and liquid molasses applied throughout the season, along with beneficial insects are very good deterrents. I haven’t had any aphid issues this year…we won’t talk about last year.
Somewhat on the downside, but not for everyone they do take a loooong time to bloom. I plant them in the spring and the earliest varieties don’t start blooming until September. Some would argue that I could grow other crops in that space and have more flowers for market…but I happen to enjoy the season extension they provide and they are well worth the wait in my opinion.
I’ve already been perusing websites, thinking about which varieties I may want to add next season…and I have already bought a few to add to what I'm growing for next season. Thanks to the generosity of others, we have an extended grow space for next season so I might as well fill it, right?