FLIMBY: Mums the word on Mother’s Day weekend

This is another installment in our weekly Flowers in My Back Yard series, devoted to blooming plants.

It may be spring, but it’s time to think about planting for fall – especially if you love mums.

Saturday, May 9, the Sacramento Chrysanthemum Society hosts its annual cuttings sale at Shepard Garden and Arts Center in McKinley Park.

This year, this popular sale returns to its usual spot on the calendar – the day before Mother’s Day. The club will offer about 1,000 mum plants – rooted and grown out from cuttings – in more than 85 varieties, including dozens not available in local nurseries. Find several varieties that produce the kind of eye-popping blooms featured in the club’s annual fall mum show.

These mum plants will sell fast, so come early for best selection. Sale hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Admission and parking are free.

Find mums in a wide range of forms from spherical incurve to cute pompom to delicate spiders. Also find a rainbow of hues and combinations including many warm bronze, yellow and red hues as well as pastel pinks, rich purples or pure whites.

In addition, get tips on how to make those mums thrive in your garden and bloom this autumn – as well as many seasons to come. Club volunteers will be happy to offer suggestions on which varieties are right for your garden.

Shepard Center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento.

More details and directions: https://www.sgaac.org/.

More about mums

Mums are perhaps the most iconic of fall flowers. But to have plenty in autumn, mum lovers need to think about these easy-care plants now.

Mums make an excellent cut flower and last in the vase for many days. And mums come in many forms and colors, so there’s a mum for almost every taste.

Mums also make beautiful gift plants. In fall (as well as late spring and summer holidays), potted mums are widely available. After the flowers fade, the gift plant can be added to the garden or kept in the pot to bloom again.

But how do you keep mums looking good and coming back year after year?

Here are tips from the Sacramento Chrysanthemum Society:

* Mums need good drainage. That’s why they grow best in pots or raised beds. In the ground, they’ll tolerate almost any kind of soil, but amend clay soils with peat moss, compost or other organic material to improve drainage.

* Mums need consistent irrigation; not too wet or too dry. Keep soil consistently moist so plants don’t dry out completely. In pots, expect to water mums three times a week (or more during hot weather); twice a week when planted in the ground. Avoid wetting foliage; it can mildew.

* Mums don’t like competition. Plant them in an area with no shrubs, trees or other perennials that may fight the mums for root space, water or nutrients.

* Mums prefer full sun (at least five hours a day), but not too much sun. An east-facing spot is best with filtered or light shade in the afternoon.

* Mums are heavy feeders and appreciate monthly fertilization while growing. Use a balanced fertilizer with equal amounts of the big three macro-nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The mum society recommends bone meal, leaf mold, compost, dried blood meal, alfalfa and aged manures, using different fertilizers over the course of the year.

* Mums grow quickly from cuttings. These mums (pictured here) all grew from cuttings rooted in spring. So, one mum plant can produce many more.

* As mums grow in spring, pinch back new growth to train the plant to produce strong and healthy stems. By pinching off lateral growth and side buds, the plant will concentrate on bigger (but fewer) flowers.

* Mums tend to be lanky (especially large-flowered varieties). Stake stems to help support those big flower heads.

* Mums not blooming? It may be too much light. The amount of light that mums get each day triggers their bloom cycle. As days get shorter, mums push out their buds. Too much light such as from porch lights or other artificial sources disrupts that cycle.

“Avoid streetlights, porch lights and car lights shining on your mums,” advises the mum society. “Unwanted light will cause your buds to set late or not bloom at all. Light prevents the bud formation.”

* When the flowers have faded, trim mum stems down to 4 to 6 inches tall. Water the plant once a week or as needed over the winter. In spring, it will start growing again and begin a whole new cycle.