Alaska News

Jeff Lowenfels: Invite chrysanthemums inside for winter

In a warmer climate I would be writing about fall chrysanthemums or "hardy mums" in the garden because this is the season for these beauties. When the dahlias and the Shasta and Long Island daisies fade, these lovelies start to bloom. For the next six to eight weeks, they rule.

To many gardeners, hardy mums are the flower to grow. All around the world, for example, dedicated garden hobbyists will spend all spring and summer fussing over only a couple of potted chrysanthemum plants, nurturing them and coaxing them, training them into the most fantastic shapes for displays of flowers the likes of which you have never seen.

My father used to fool around with hardy mums, but I first saw a big "kiku" display at Longwood Gardens and was blown away. Then I saw them on display in parks throughout Japan. Wow. Each individual flower on these plants, and there can be dozens and dozens, is trained and supported to form a shape. These shapes can range from peacock-tail size (and look) to huge 10-foot balls of flowers, each exactly the same distance from its neighbors.

While I have not seen any such fantastic display plants for sale hereabouts, we are able to enjoy chrysanthemums thanks to their being part of the seasonal floral plant rotation. Due to its natural flowering season, the potted mum has become a Halloween and Thanksgiving plant. Nurseries all around the country grow them for sale in our stores just as they come into bloom. They will stay so for six to eight weeks if given the proper care.

Mums come in all sorts of colors, sizes and flower shapes. In this regard they are a lot like dahlias. However, the classic single is the most popular, with yellow and white being the favorite colors (though breeders have fooled around with various color schemes for them). Look around and you will find different kinds of mums if you are interested. Otherwise, just buy healthy plants and enjoy. They are all beautiful.

In addition, buy plants that are showing just a bit of color in their buds. If they are all closed up, the plant may not actually flower. Why take the chance? On the other hand, a plant that is fully in bloom won't last quite as long. Obviously the plant should have healthy-looking leaves with no sign of the big plague for them: botrytis, or gray mold. Look around at the other plants for this gray powder, just to be sure.

Once home, keep your plant where temperatures are cool, 50 to 65 degrees being the ideal range. Bright light is also required (and this is not a problem because you have a nice light set up, and maybe even a portable one as well) so up near a good south-facing window makes some sense for both light and coolness.

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The mum is one of those plants that NASA says can help clean the air. This is because they transpire heavily. Evaporation of water from the stomata in leaves causes water from the soil to be drawn up into roots and then to the leaves for evaporation. This means you need to pay particular attention to make sure plants are in soil that never dries. It must be slightly moist at all times. Mums can really wilt if not.

It's also a good idea to try and keep chrysanthemum foliage dry, as the coolness and the moisture in combination are great for fostering the evil aforementioned botrytis.

There is not much else to mum care up here, as these are considered temporary houseplants, not the hardy perennials of Outside. In addition, they are often pumped up with chemicals that stunt their growth and create uniformity. You can keep your plant until summer and put it into the ground, but it is very unlikely it will be able to survive the winter. That is why we have Shasta daisies, I suppose.

Jeff’s Alaska garden calendar for the week of Oct. 31

Alaska Botanical Garden: Fall membership drive. Have you joined? It's a must: alaskabg.org.

Watering: If you don't have well water, consider letting yours sit for a few hours so the chlorine evaporates. Chloramine, also used in water, will be "complexed" out by organics in your soil.

Lights: Come on, folks. There are eight more months of the indoor growing season.

Jeff Lowenfels

Jeff Lowenfels has written a weekly gardening column for the ADN for more than 45 years. His columns won the 2022 gold medal at the Garden Communicators International conference. He is the author of a series of books on organic gardening available at Amazon and elsewhere. He co-hosts the "Teaming With Microbes" podcast.

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