A Mess O' Mums
A recent development is the series of Belgian mums (not to be confused with florist mums). They produce several thousand blooms per plant. These are sold as garden mums, but are no hardier than florist mums, so should be considered the same as far as our climate is concerned. They are stunning in bloom. Drop one in a fancy container or basket and it can serve, alone, as a centerpiece at a fraction of the cost of an arrangement of the same size. Look as I might, I have been unable to uncover the reason they are called "Belgian mums". I suspect it is a marketing thing.
One of the newest products of the University of Minnesota's 50 year old mum breeding program is the series of plants they call Maxi-Mums. They were named this because the plants mature in their second year to 3 feet high and 3 to 4 feet wide. The first one introduced several years ago was 'Betty Lou' a red button variety. This year a marketing consortium called MyFavoriteGarden has released a red daisy of that series named 'Autumn Red' with a great advertising splash. It is being sold in distinctive 10" blue pots. The advertising sounded great, but I was skeptical from having lost too many planted-in-bloom mums in my years in zone 4, so I contacted Neil Anderson, the developer at the U. with my questions. He assures me they have tested this series for several years by planting them in full bloom as late as mid-October in zone 4 and have had them come through the winter successfully.
I guess we finally are going to get to have our cake and eat it too, even here in the frozen North. Of course, you need to have lots of room for a 3' by 3' mum. It will fill as much space as a small shrub. More colors are promised in the future, so you could someday have a multi-hued, fall-blooming chrysanthemum hedge around your perennial garden. Send me pictures!
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