How to Plant a Hardy Mum

Hardy chrysanthemums are one of the most sought sun loving perennials of all. In this video, Spring Hill's plants expert talks you through the act of planting hardy chrysanthemums in spring. You'll find tips on picking the right planting site, soil amendment, planting specifics, watering and more.

Hi, I'm Scott from Spring Hill Nurseries and today, on step-by-step gardening, we're doing part two of hardy chrysanthemums. In the first part, I told you you want to buy a hardy perennial mum and you want to plant it at the right time which is early spring, So, that's what we're going to do today. First thing to think about is your site. You want your mums in a sunny location because they're going to take all the sun they can get. And for spacing, you want the mums to be about two feet apart so they can grow to their full width. Now you will have dug a hole that's about twice the size of the width of the plant. I already dug mine. Take your hardy mum, pull it gently out of the pot, okay? And you're going to want to take the roots and you're going to want to do what we call fluffing. When you get those roots out and get them to really suck up the moisture and the good soil, and all that. So, you're going to take your fingers and your thumb here and you're going to just gently break apart those roots. Just a little bit, okay? Get them out there, get them ready to get all that good nutrients, okay? Now we're going to set this aside for just one second and we're going to look at our hole here a little bit. I dug here in this nice site with good garden soil, but if you don't have good garden soil, you're going to want to add some organic matter, some good compost. You're going to mix that in with your garden soil so your plant will really take off. Now to give it a little bit of extra boost, I suggest putting some fertilizer in your hole. What you want to do is, you want to pour in about two teaspoons worth for every square foot and mix it in with the garden soil in the planting hole. So, we're going to mix in a little bit there. Mix it all up, real good, alright. That's perfect. That will get our plant off to a good start. So, now you take your plant with the fluffed roots, okay? Stick it in the hole. From here on out, it is simple. Just backfill your hole with your garden soil, and this is a good time too to put in some of that good organic matter if you have some, okay? Then tamp it down a little bit, not too much, but just enough. I also suggest putting some good organic mulch around the plant to help moisture retention. Put that around. Right. Don't forget to water your plant too. So, that's the key to planting a hardy perennial mum. Put it in a good, sunny location with good soil, okay? And if you don't have good soil, you can put some organic matter in and make sure you have some fertilizer at the bottom. That will really help it get off to a good start. Now for your care of the mum, in the early spring, when the buds start to come out, you just want to pinch them, okay? And you're going to want to do that again in the early summer and that will help your mum get a nice, bushy form. So that's it for planting mums. If you follow the steps that I outlined in this video, you're going to get beautiful hardy mums that will come back year after year and your garden can look just like this. For Spring Hill Nurseries, I am Scott Atkinson with step-by-step gardening.