Mums are the perfect addition to fall container gardens, offering vibrant blooms in a variety of colors. By pairing them with complementary plants like ornamental grasses, kale, and pansies, you can create beautiful, eye-catching arrangements for your patio or porch. This guide provides design ideas and essential care tips for keeping your container mums healthy all season long.
1. Choosing the Right Mums for Containers
When selecting mums for containers, opt for compact, mound-forming varieties. These types stay more manageable in pots and create a full, lush appearance. Popular container mums include ‘Gigi Yellow,’ ‘Stacy White,’ and ‘Coral Charm,’ which offer vibrant colors while remaining a good size for container gardening.
- Size: Choose mums that will fit comfortably in your container, allowing enough space for companion plants. Smaller, more compact varieties are ideal for pots and window boxes.
- Color: Consider your overall color scheme when choosing mums. Bright yellows, oranges, and reds create a classic autumn look, while whites and purples offer a more understated elegance.
Tip: Mix and match different colors of mums for a varied, dynamic display that can change throughout the season.
2. Creating Stunning Fall Combinations
Mums are versatile and pair well with many other fall plants, creating depth and texture in your container garden. Here are a few great plant companions for mums:
- Ornamental Kale and Cabbage: These plants provide interesting foliage and colors, ranging from purples to greens, complementing the bright hues of mums.
- Ornamental Grasses: Grasses like Fountain Grass or Blue Fescue add height and texture, providing a soft, flowing contrast to the rounded blooms of mums.
- Pansies and Violas: These cool-weather flowers add additional splashes of color and can trail over the edges of your container for a cascading effect.
- Ivy or Creeping Jenny: These trailing plants are perfect for softening the edges of the container and adding a green, cascading element to your arrangement.
Tip: For a balanced design, use the “thriller, filler, spiller” formula: Mums act as the “thriller” (focal point), while other plants fill the space or spill over the edges.
3. Container Design Ideas
Whether you’re designing for a front porch or a backyard patio, there are endless ways to incorporate mums into your fall container garden. Here are a few design ideas to inspire you:
- Classic Fall Mix: Combine bright orange mums with deep purple ornamental kale and tall grasses. Add trailing ivy to spill over the sides of a large container for a classic fall look.
- Monochromatic Elegance: Use white mums paired with silver-colored Dusty Miller and light green cabbage for a clean, monochromatic design that brings elegance to any entryway.
- Rustic Harvest Theme: For a cozy, autumnal vibe, pair yellow mums with small pumpkins, gourds, and cornstalks. Ornamental grasses can add height, while Creeping Jenny or ivy trails around the base for added texture.
- Vibrant Color Blast: Mix bright red, orange, and purple mums in a single large container for a dramatic, colorful impact. Pair with contrasting ornamental cabbage or flowering kale to break up the color and add dimension.
Tip: Choose containers with drainage holes to prevent water from pooling at the bottom, which can lead to root rot.
4. Caring for Mums in Containers
Keeping your container mums healthy throughout fall requires attention to watering, sunlight, and feeding. Here’s how to ensure your mums stay vibrant:
- Watering: Mums in containers dry out faster than those planted in the ground, so check them daily and water thoroughly when the top inch of soil feels dry. Water at the base of the plant to keep the leaves and flowers dry, which helps prevent fungal diseases.
- Sunlight: Mums need plenty of sunlight to bloom, so place your containers in a location that gets at least 6 hours of sun per day. If your porch or patio is shaded, choose a spot with the best available light.
- Fertilizing: Since mums in containers have limited access to nutrients, use a balanced fertilizer once a month during the growing season. Stop fertilizing in late summer to encourage blooms rather than leafy growth.
Tip: To keep your mums blooming longer, remove spent flowers (deadheading) regularly. This encourages new blooms and keeps your container garden looking fresh.
5. Overwintering Mums in Containers
Mums in containers can be overwintered if you take the proper steps to protect them from freezing temperatures. If you’d like to enjoy your mums again next year, follow these tips:
- Move Indoors: Before the first hard frost, bring your potted mums indoors and place them in a cool, dark location like a basement or garage. Water them lightly throughout winter, just enough to keep the soil from drying out completely.
- Cut Back in Spring: In early spring, once the danger of frost has passed, bring your mums back outside and cut back any dead stems to encourage new growth. Replant them in fresh soil and give them a dose of fertilizer to kick-start the new growing season.
Tip: If you don’t have space indoors, insulate your container by wrapping it in burlap or placing it in a sheltered location against the house to protect it from extreme cold.
