Annual / color · North Texas care guide
Chrysanthemum × morifolium
Nursery Pro tip: Fall porch essential. Buy them in tight bud for the longest show — and they often come back.
The signature fall plant — mounds of bronze, gold, burgundy, purple or white daisies from September through hard frost. Sold in bud and bloom, and most people treat them as a seasonal annual; in a well-drained bed a fall mum will often return as a perennial.
Full sun — six hours minimum, or they stretch and bloom thinly. Well-drained bed with compost. Space 18–24 in apart if you're keeping them; plant them shoulder to shoulder in a display pot.
September, in bud rather than full bloom so you get the whole show in your yard rather than at the store. Root Stimulator at planting, light mulch.
This is where store-bought mums die: they're root-bound and dry out in a day. Check daily in a pot and every couple of days in a bed, and water at the base — wet flowers turn to mush.
Nothing needed for the fall display. If you're keeping them as perennials, feed in spring and early summer.
Pinch off the spent flowers to keep the mound tidy. To grow them on as perennials, cut them back after frost, then pinch the new growth back by half in May and again in early July — that's what makes a compact plant covered in fall bloom instead of a tall floppy one.
Drying out (the number-one killer), aphids on buds, and root rot in a wet bed. Plants that were forced for fall sale don't always survive their first winter, so consider them a bonus if they do.
Fall containers and porch displays with ornamental kale, pansies and pumpkins; in beds with Gulf muhly and Mexican bush sage.
Written for Rockwall's black clay, heat and winters by the Landscape Source team. Every yard is different — bring a photo by, or ask LS-Ai, and we'll tailor it to your spot.