Most gardeners like to buy their perennials in bloom for obvious reasons: they can see what they are getting (they think), and the beautiful plants, covered in a bouquet of blooms look great in a pot, definitely inviting them to buy. It seems logical to choose a lavish selection, dress up the porch and patio, then plant them later to add beauty to the garden in future seasons. This plan usually works in zone 6, in my experience, but we have to honor the basic biology of mums to ensure they will survive our zone 4 winters. Read about growing them in zone 4 in this article I wrote in 1998 for more information.
What you need to know about mums is that once they begin to bud and bloom, their energy is directed to this activity and not to the process of establishing new roots. That process goes on in spring and summer before they bloom. The few planted-in-bloom mums that I have had come back have been among the ones I put in the ground as soon as I bought them and mulched heavily after the ground froze, but I've come to regard those successes as bonuses when measured against the failures. Planting hardy mums in late spring or early summer before they set bud has never failed to produce a perennial mum for me.
The University of Minnesota has had a mum breeding program for years that has produced a host of beautiful, rock hardy garden mums with wonderful names like 'Lemonsota' and 'Minngopher' especially suited to our climate. I had grown these in zone 6 before I transplanted to zone 4 because they were hardier and more reliable than the garden center standbys. Beyond the decorative mums that seem to be the mainstays in garden center fall offerings, these bred-especially-for-us mums come in a greater range of bloom types: daisies, spiders, spoons and buttons as well as formal and informal decoratives. You usually have to search for them though, because most commercial growers, like commercial tomato growers, prefer the varieties that are easiest for them to grow, flower, ship and hold for sale. Their products are very pretty, and so are "winter grocery store tomatoes", though neither has the qualities I am looking for in a tasty homegrown tomato or northern hardy mum. Ask for Minnesota mums where you normally buy mums, so the retailers will know we want these plants, not just the common commercial varieties they offer.
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