The summer doldrums is an expression linked to almost every human endeavor-from a lack of energy to get things done to the television rerun schedule.
Those same kinds of doldrums are beginning to show up in yards and gardens. That blush of bloom, that flush of new growth on our plants has hunkered down into a pattern of straggliness and battles against weeds, insects and diseases.
But with the onset of shorter days and the wind-down to summer comes the realization that better growing weather is virtually here. Cooler nights and the prospect of more regular rainfall mean plants that are suffering now have quite a good season ahead of them.
Invariably, however, many of those petunias we bought as perky little four-packs have become unmanageable and it seems an easier decision to yank them out and start with something fresh. Landscapers do it all the time for commercial plantings and for homeowners who demand a fresh floral display for each season.
The average gardener can do much the same with a little planning and a trip to the garden center.
“The obvious thing” to plant at this time of year “is mums,” says Joe Hruby of the Chalet Garden Center in Wilmette.
The University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service’s Susan Grupp concurs: “Mums are fantastic with so many varieties that you can extend the season from late summer to Thanksgiving. They’re wonderful in planters or window boxes for a spot of color.”
Most mum plants arrive at the garden center in a tight-bud stage ready to explode within a week into shades from white through yellow, orange, red and lavender. That display of color is so instantaneous that people often expect it to last indefinitely.
“The problem we encounter is that mums are perennials with a limited bloom season and people bring the plant back and say they quit blooming after three to four weeks,” says Hruby. While some mums flower earlier than others, the bloom period is pretty uniform in the three- to four-week range. Grupp says the season can be extended by buying the later flowering varieties in addition to the early ones.
“If people thought mums are a cliche, they need to take a new look at them,” says horticulturist Brian Skaggs of Frank’s Nursery and Crafts. There’s an explosion of varietal choices, he says. “Some rival floral mums. Frank’s gets mums from six growers and any one of them can give us 10 to 15 varieties and the selection changes.”
While breeders have yet to develop a cascading mum, it doesn’t keep growers from producing baskets covered with flowers. Their trick is to stick plants in the side of the basket in addition to the top, so a large mound of color emerges after some careful attention to pruning. Hruby says these baskets, which range from 15 to 30 inches across, have been well-received at the Chalet.
The care of mums would seem pretty straightforward-plunk them in the soil and forget them-but if you want them to flower the longest and possibly return next year, they should get their needs met.
“I never venture out to do any planting without starter fertilizer,” says Skaggs. “They usually have at least a one-to-two ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus. The higher the nitrogen level, the more top growth you will get but the phosphorus content provides the necessary nutrients for good root establishment,” which is what the gardener needs to prolong bloom and get the plant through the winter.
Mums are shallow-rooted plants and susceptible to droughts, Grupp says, so a good watering is needed to get them established. She prefers a diluted fertilizer mix at planting time to keep from burning those roots.
Mums can be kept for many years but they are relatively susceptible to the vagaries of winter for their survival. Grupp says spring-planted mums have the best winter survival chance because their roots are established. The optimal conditions are full sun and a site that drains well, particularly in winter. Pinching back the early season growth until the 4th of July encourages a bigger, bushier plant.
Overwintering
“If you’re plunking mums in the garden in the fall, expect that you won’t have success overwintering them,” Grupp advises. “It really depends on the weather we have, but when do we have a normal season anymore?”
Hruby says the Chalet has a brochure to help people care for their mums. “The earlier they go in, the better chance they have,” he says. “The winter frost action often pushes them out of the ground. We recommend a mulch of something coarse after frost. We have one customer who uses a mound of construction-grade sand, which allows the water to drain away but has weight to guard against frost heaving.”
The garden mums available now should not be confused with florist mums, which have been forced into bloom in a greenhouse using lights to simulate long days. Those varieties usually don’t bloom early enough outdoors to make them a suitable choice for the garden.
Although the mums are the flower of choice for transplanting in the fall, ornamental cabbages and kales are gaining more popularity. “They are primarily a foliage plant with exotic colors,” Hruby says. “You can plunk them in the pot where the geraniums have been all summer and they’ll last until Thanksgiving. It takes a prolonged freeze to set them back.”
The plants are similar to cabbage plants, where the head never quite forms. Whites, lavenders and deep reds contrast with the several shades of green. Ruffled leaves give a softer look to some of the kales.
At the garden centers, look for larger plants that are already 12 to 18 inches across, virtually full grown, rather than small ones that may not have enough season left to get to those heftier sizes. The U. of I.’s Grupp says early September is the best time to plant these cool-loving plants, which will resume their show in the spring before going to seed.
To plant, use methods recommended for mums. To make their show last longer, cover the plants on the coldest nights of autumn or bring planters indoors. Although the kale can be used in the kitchen, its bitter, fibrous leaves are usually harvested and cooked after a frost.
Another bellwether of the fall season is the aster, which is somewhat difficult to find as a potted plant for plugging into the garden. Grupp says asters are more difficult than mums to establish in the garden and if planted in fall would have to be treated as an annual because of the uncertainty of the winter weather. These perennials are best planted in spring.
Although most of us think “color” in its most garish form, many garden areas are lifted visually by the contrast between two simple shades. Frank’s Skaggs says color can be as simple as green-and-white or green-and-gold foliage available in either groundcover or shrub forms of euonymus, which hold their leaves through the winter.
There’s still plenty of time left to enjoy the color of summer before that fateful day when the maple tree down the street takes center stage with its glorious burst of orange and red leaves. And with a little planning, there will still be flowers in the beds when those leaves have faded and tumbled to the ground.
