New to gardening….

Working at a landscape company and never having a garden just doesn’t sound right so I decided to join the cult and start a garden.  Now I’m addicted.

Last year I moved into a new home and the previous owners had a nice, big flower bed along side the house.  I planted mums since it was fall and about 50% didn’t make it.  I should back up a bit… I’ve never been able to keep any plant or flower alive longer than a few weeks. I’ve killed an aloe plant AND a spider plant. I believe I even killed a cactus when I was young.  That’s right… my thumb is dark purple if not black!  I am now on a mission to have a green thumb.

This is what it looked like right before I pruned it the first time.

Back to the mums.  The 3 that survived were such good little plants, they made it through the winter and started blooming in spring.  Wait! I thought these were fall flowers?  I called up my mom, who by the way has a green thumb, and she tells me to cut them back and don’t let them bloom.  But do it right away! Well, I’m a little bit of a workaholic so I put it off.   Who has time to prune FALL flowers in the spring?

But I did get it done by 4^th of July which is when she said is the very latest to do it.  It was very easy to do.  Did I do it correctly? Heaven knows.  They were out of control at that time so I took the pruning shears and cut it all the way down.  As time went on, all three mums kept growing.  As the buds would start, I’d pinch them off.  When the end of summer arrived, I let it go and they really surprised me by once again becoming full bodied beautiful mums.

This is my second spring and I recently cut them back again.  As you can see in the photos, they are ready to be cut back a second time.  I’m not sure what kind of mums these are but they are sure healthy.

Spring 2017 mum after being cut back once already

Do you have any tips to share?  Please post away!  I’d love to hear how others take care of their mums.

Stayed tuned for my next blog where I’ll share all the different things I’m growing.

~ Lily Belle