Mums and Asters for Fall Beauty

Add some fresh color to your landscape with mums and asters.

Set them in a decorative pot and place them on your front steps to welcome visitors. Or use them on your patio, deck, or balcony for a bit of color to enjoy all fall. Combine with other fall favorites like ornamental grasses, cabbage, kale, mustard, and pansies for greater impact.

Or use them to replace fading annuals or fill voids in the garden. Leave the mum in its pot and sink it into the ground when using these plants as annuals in the fall garden. Youll need to water less and it will be easier to remove and replace with new plantings.

And if you're trying to grow them as perennials and tired of replacing fall planted mums and asters every year, purchase and plant them in spring and keep pinching them back to 6 inches throughout early summer. Youll have more compact plants covered with lots of blooms.

A bit more information: Mums and asters make great long-lasting cut flowers. Grow extra plants to insure you have plenty to cut and enjoy indoors. Pick these and other flowers in the morning or evening when the plants are full of moisture. Recut stems right before placing them in a clean vase filled with water. Keep the vase full of water and your flowers will provide more than a week of enjoyment.