Growing Heirloom Chrysanthemums

This year I found myself drawn to a new cut flower that I’m going to continue to explore. Chrysanthemums are one of the best cut flowers you can grow for Fall blooms in the garden. Thanks to my friend Cynthia over at Heritage Mums, this was the year of the chrysanthemum in my Southern California garden. No, this post was not sponsored, but I did receive three varieties of heirloom mum cuttings to trial and grow in my garden last year. So, if you’re curious about growing heirloom chrysanthemums, read on!

Chrysanthemums, affectionately referred to as “mums” by many a gardener, have gotten a bad rap for years. Having worked in wedding florals in the past, I distinctly remember brides being very averse towards mums, carnations, and baby’s breath. Hilariously enough, I actually have developed quite a love for carnations and mums in recent years—both in the garden and in arrangements.

My mother has always gone to the clearance rack at her local nursery and “rescued” the mums that end up there. These specific varieties have very small flowers and tend to grow more as mounds—very traditional front porch décor. Alternatively, the chrysanthemums I’m talking about today are markedly different. Heirloom mums are different than the traditional types you see at big box stores. Heirloom mums come in more colors, more shapes, and more sizes than I ever knew! In fact, a large part of Heritage Mums’ business is selling wholesale mums to florists to be used as cut flowers. Indeed, I agree that these chrysanthemum varieties look absolutely luscious in flower arrangements, and I look forward to growing more heirloom chrysanthemums for this purpose.

My Heirloom Chrysanthemums Arrived

Here’s what I learned about the process of growing heirloom chrysanthemums—from ordering, to shipping, to care, and more! Typically, you will order your heirloom chrysanthemums as rooted cuttings from an online source. These rooted cuttings will arrive via mail, and need to be potted up into little containers so they can become healthy plants. In my case, the cuttings arrived as little rooted plugs—they were gloriously green and healthy—and I chose to up-pot them into 4-inch pots. Depending on your situation, I guess you could put the cuttings directly in the ground but, at the small size they arrive, I would worry about pests/critters and weather endangering the rooted cuttings. If you want see some video of how I up-potted my chrysanthemum cuttings, definitely watch our Planting Heirloom Chrysanthemums Video.

As I said, this year I grew three varieties of heirloom chrysanthemums—Homecoming, Pat Lehman, and Autumn Beauty. Of those three varieties, it was impossible to choose a favorite. I loved ‘Homecoming’ for it’s size and romantic color. ‘Pat Lehman’ went through the prettiest color change as it bloomed (many mums will change their hue as the blooms progress on the plant). Lastly, ‘Autumn Beauty’ was very prolific, and its shade of rusty orange was perfection for Fall! Surprisingly, there was something to enjoy and admire about each of the varieties I grew. When Heritage Mums started their pre-sale for 2025, I decided to order six new heirloom chrysanthemums to my garden. I chose talisman, irish linen, mellow yellow, centerpiece, stadium queen, and quarterback. They are dreaaammmmyyyy! Can you tell I’m excited?!

The Growth Cycle of Chrysanthemums

I know we are all familiar with growing zones. If you aren’t, please check out What’s My Gardening Zone? I’m in zone 10, and Cynthia sent me mums last year so we could see how they might do in our drier, warmer climate. In summary, most heirloom chrysanthemums are perennials that will go through a period of dormancy in Winter.  I say “most” because some chrsyanthemums are not considered hardy—meaning they won’t survive Winter, and typically are meant to grow as annuals. The mums that Heritage Mums sells are known to be more hardy. After planting out my rooted cuttings in Spring, the plants grew….and grew…and grew all Summer. Towards the end of Summer, they sent up tons of little buds that eventually resulted in a big bloom in Fall (around the end of October into November). It’s really important to note that chrysanthemums are single-bloomers, not repeat bloomers. Typically, after blooming in Fall, the plants can be deadheaded/cut back and will remain dormant until the following Spring. For colder zones, look into winterizing your mums to protect them through Winter.

Now, there is something that we are waiting to figure out and observe. Is it possible for heirloom chrysanthemum plants to put up a second bloom in late Winter or Spring in milder climates? Because of our mild winters in zone 10, there is a chance that the plants could put out more growth after their Fall bloom, and maybe bloom once more later in the season. Remember, I’m a new chrysanthemum grower, so this blogpost is purely based on my experience and observations this year. There’s still lots to learn! It’s currently Spring 2025, and I noticed the mum plants look much stronger now and are pushing nice growth (see photo).

Growing Location and Requirements

Upon receipt of my heirloom chrysanthemums, I decided to try growing them in different locations in my garden. I do have to be honest, with all the backyard renovations we have been making, it took me a long time to finally plant my chrysanthemums in the ground. Were they a little bit neglected? Yes.

One growing location was in bright light nestled on the east side of an avocado, but the light was mostly indirect. These mums reached more for the light, so they had weaker stems and flopped over. Regardless, they bloomed magnificently! The second growing location was on the west side of a nectarine tree. It got more direct sun for a good six hours or so, and I noticed that the stems grew stronger but the plants were smaller (probably due to how late I got them in the ground). The flowers were gorgeous as well! Finally, my third location was tucked next to my Munstead rose, and these plants got more sun than all the other plants. Again, stronger stems developed, and the flowers were able to stay more upright in growth habit. While the plants were on the smaller side, I suspect that after this year they will grow much larger. You might remember from my Perennial Companions for Roses blogpost, that many perennials hit their stride in year 3 anyway. Overall, I’m going to keep all the mums in their original locations for now and see how it goes!

As for soil, all my heirloom chrysanthemums are growing in-ground in pretty well-nourished, loamy soil. It’s the same soil that we have been building for almost a decade—topping with compost yearly.

Pinching Mums and disbudding

As I wind down this brief summary of growing heirloom chrysanthemums, I’d like to note some maintenance tips for these lovely flowers. Throughout the growing season, I pinched my chrysanthemums as instructed by my friend Cynthia. Her rule for pinching chrysanthemums is to pinch until July first and then STOP. Essentially you can snip off the tips of your plants, right above a leaf node, and keep doing this to all branches as your plant grows. This pinching process promotes more bushy growth, which can result in more buds (and thus more blooms). You can see how I pinched/snipped my chrysanthemum plants in my youtube video.

Secondly, there’s another tip that I didn’t get to exercise this year while growing my heirloom chrysanthemums—disbudding! Essentially, this involves removing side buds from a bud “cluster” to encourage the remaining bud to bloom bigger. From what I’ve seen, this is how growers get those really large flowers. I did notice that my ‘Pat Lehman’ did not flower as large as it could, and I am thinking this was because I left all the buds on the stem. Personally, I didn’t mind the clusters of smaller flowers, so I don’t know if I’d bother to take the time to disbud. As with many things in the gardening world, you can really choose to meddle in the cultivation of your plants as little or as much as you’d like. Some gardeners love to train and work with their plants, while others prefer a more wild and untouched garden.

Are these pest free?!

Alright, if you are weighing the pros and cons of adding these sweet flowers to your garden, please note that the pest and disease issues were extremely minimal. For most of the growing season, the foliage stayed deep green and strong. I saw little to no leaf miner damage, no powdery mildew, and didn’t see anything other than some aphids during bloom. As you know, most of the time I just squish or spray off aphids, and the amount of aphids was not concerning at all.

In addition to pretty low pest pressure, chrysanthemums have an incredibly long vaselife. Unlike other cut flowers that might give you 3 to 5 days or so, I’ve seen these last 1-2 weeks easy. Also, I noticed that the chrysanthemums I grew didn’t drop petals all over the table as they aged in the vase. Yes, you’ll have to replenish the water in the vase from time to time, but the staying power of chrysanthemums is impressive!

Overwintering Heirloom Chrysanthemums

You might be wondering ‘what do these chrysanthemums look like right now?’ The flush of blooms hung around until about December. After blooming, I cut the flower stems down to the main mound of the chrysanthemum plant. So far, the plants look like they are growing more leaves from the base—very similar to how the majority of perennials act in our mild winter climate.  Essentially, chrysanthemums give you one big show in Fall, so be prepared for that when you are planning out where to plant them.

So that’s been my venture into growing heirloom chrysanthemums. I’m thrilled to have more color and visual interest in the Fall garden. I also hope this information helps other gardeners in similar zones decide if they want to add chrysanthemums to their gardens. I just got the email that my pre-ordered 2025 mum cuttings are on their way! I might plant these cuttings directly in the garden, so off to find space!