In zones 6 and 7, if you want your mums to come back every year you’ll need to select varieties that were bred to be able to withstand the frozen ground of winter. All of our varieties are winter hardy and will perennialize in zones 6 and 7.

If you’re working with cold hardy varieties like ours then maintenance will just involve cutting back all branches to the ground either at the end of fall or in earliest spring before new spring growth starts to come on.

Especially in zone 6 you’ll be rewarded if you choose a little bit earlier varieties. In both zones but especially in zone 7 you do have some wiggle room and can plant the long season varieties as well - they’ll just have a little shorter bloom window depending on when your hard frost hits. Temperatures below 20F for a long period will end your mum season but these guys can withstand some frosty temperatures. You can use frost cloth to prolong the season if need be.

Plant your mums in full sun and they will thrive. They can withstand shade but the plants will be much smaller and have less flowers the less sun they get. They should do fine in a situation with half day sun. In the summer be sure to water deep at least once a week - twice a week when temps are over 100. If you water nice and deep from the time they are young you will train the roots to go down vertically rather than spreading out along the surface. This will make your plants more drought resistant and you will be able to get away with watering less but when you do water you’ll want to water long and slow so that water can reach deep deep down to those deep roots.

Plant your cuttings in the spring just after your last frost date or in late summer about 6-8 weeks before the first frost. That will give them time to establish roots before the winter. You can also plant new cuttings all through the summer but you run more of a risk of cuttings drying out since their roots will be so small and shallow. If you’re an attentive gardener planting cuttings in the summer will work fine. You’ll get a small crop of flowers that first fall if you plant in the summer and then plants will reach their mature size that 2nd year.

Some of my favorite varieties for you to try are: Autumn Sunset, Centennial Sun is a very prolific early landscape variety, Doliette is a pretty novelty variety and Bronze Giant and Red Headliner are fun for cut flowers. If you’d like to shop our entire selection of cuttings you can shop them here. At the time of checkout you’ll be able to choose when you would like the cuttings shipped to you. We have cuttings available to be shipped from January to October and you can order year round.