We get a LOT of questions about how heirloom chrysanthemums grow. And we get it, these plants are wonderfully weird! Their shapes, habits, and personalities are all over the map. Whether you’re planting them to enjoy in the garden, harvesting for stunning bouquets, or training them into cascades and funky displays… it helps to know what you’re working with.
While every heirloom mum has its own unique flair, they can generally be grouped into three helpful growth categories:
- Landscape
- Cut Flower
- Container / Specialty Form
(And yes, some varieties moonlight across categories. Mums like to keep us guessing!)
Let’s dig into what makes each group special…
Landscape Mums
Reliable, returning year after year.
These are your garden workhorses. They typically:
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Have a shorter, fuller growth habit
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Form dense branching + bushy foliage
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Are more cold hardy for overwintering
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Create beautiful fall displays with minimal fuss
Great choices for beginners & perennial lovers:
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Hopscotch
Plant them once, enjoy them for years. Easy as pumpkin pie.
Cut-Flower Mums
These are the fancy girls (the ones that make florists swoon). Expect:
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Long stems perfect for bouquets
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Fast, tall growth, often needs support/netting
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The most impressive bloom forms: spoons, spiders, reflexed, incurves…
- Some may need extra help overwintering
Pinching during summer is key to get full stems and lots of blooms.
These mums = art.
Container / Topiary / Cascade Mums
These varieties are natural shape-shifters, ideal for:
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Cascades + wall plantings
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Topiaries and trained forms
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Porch containers and hanging baskets
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AND — they can also be grown as cuts!
They produce prolific sprays and offer a fresh way to enjoy mums.
Top picks here at the farm:
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Bronze Fleece
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Pink Fleece
How to Shape Your Chrysanthemums
The magic word: PINCHING
Pinching is how we influence height, fullness, and flower count.
When to pinch:
From spring until early August (before buds set)
How to pinch:
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Snip or break off the top half of each stem
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Leave two sets of leaves below the cut
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Watch the plant branch into two new stems
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Repeat once stems double in height
Each pinch = more branching, more blooms, fuller plant
One of the coolest parts of growing mums is that you get to choose the experience you're after:
- Big, bold cut flowers
- Charming, reliable borders
- Artistic shapes for porch or patio
Every heirloom chrysanthemum has a personality, and with a few thoughtful pinches, you get to help shape it.
We hope this helps take some of the mystery out of these incredible plants and gives you the confidence to grow the look you love!
Want to learn more about mums? Join us at our Fourth Annual Virtual Mum Summit from November 13th - 16th. All content is recorded for you to look back on and learn!
