many of the versions offered .. are not fully hardy in many parts of the country ..

frankly .. the easy way .. would be to heal it into mother earth.. and let her take care of it.. or kill it ... and clean out and store your pot like you should ... and add some good mulch over it ...

pots in garages can be hard ... especially come late winter.. when your garage is two or three zones warmer than outdoors... and this thing pops into life... a month ahead of you being able to take it outside ...

ken

We plant mums in the fall into big pots on the driveway that we use for growing peas in the spring. We move the pots into the (unnheated) garage for the winter. Some of the mums survive and some don't. We harvest leeks and carrots from pots in the garage for most of the winter! We plant garlic in the fall in pots that overwinter in the garage. The key is to use BIG pots (nothing is going to survive in nursery pots - even in the 10-12" ones....) The pots we use as about 22" wide and 15" or so deep. So put your mums into a bigger pot to give them more protection. Also, store the pots at the back away from the dooors to minimize temperature fluctuations. And make sure the soil is moist - but not soggy!

This orange mum survived in the pot last winter - it was growing stongly when we took the pots out in the spring. I had no idea what color it would be until it flowered since we had yellow, orange, and red ones in the pots last year. I have found that the red ones are more likely to survive than yellow ones - clearly orange is good too :-)
{{gwi:213951}}

thank you i cant plant it in the ground because it is in a fall display your guys were so helpful

Have planted "fall mums" as fillers here.

As said, only a very few have survived (as above, all orange ones) into the next growing season.

Below one of the few; at least five years old at the time (October 11, 2012). Was in protected position, but new hardscaping has now killed it off.

best bet is to buy some named small plants from a nursery in spring and and plant then.
Most decorative mums aren't bred for overwintering. They are pot bound when you get them, and have been fed huge amounts of whatever it that makes them grow flowers (besides diminishing daylight hours)

Just for fun, Go to Lazy S website, and find their mum listings. Only they aren't called chrythemums anymore dendra something.
They cross reference them anyway.

I have Will's wonderful, Sheffield Pink, Sheffield Yellow and another mystery one about to bloom.
Worth every penny, and by the following year you'll need to divide them and share with friends.

I do have mums that wintered over from fall pots. They were not terribly root bound, put them in, watered well and continued to water through october Then I MUlched. probably 2 out of 4 came through, and bloomed where I had transplanted them to.
I must say they were no where near as interesting as the perennial ones like I mentioned above.

Also see further down on this forum, "Impressed by Mammoth Mum"
thread

I've also overwintered Mums and had about the same success rate as idabean. I've also ordered Mums in the spring from Bluestone that are hardy. One of my favorites is 'Amber Morning'. I've been reading about pollinators this year, to try to encourage more of them in my garden and evidently the double Mums don't provide much food for them this time of year, when they need it. The single bloom Mums do, so I am happy that Amber Morning is a single from that perspective too.

Thanks for that reference to Lazy S for another source of hardy Mums, Marie.

I planted most of my mums last year during late summer/early fall. Most overwintered just fine and even multiplied after a harsher than normal winter with no snow cover, countless freeze-thaw cycles and no mulch (I am a bad plant parent!).

I did plant a few select doubles, but most I chose were the single flowered "Korean" types because I love their graceful looks *and* I read they would be better for pollinators. Although I have occasionally seen bees (and other beneficials) on my single-flowered mums, I find they will all but ignore the mums if there are other plants like asters or goldenrods blooming in the vicinity.

I've read that, Ispahan, that Goldenrod is the most popular plant with most pollinators. I have a couple of asters but they were only in bloom for about 10 days, and I don't have goldenrods. I have bought mostly double Mums, which I love the look of, but, I'm going to try to add more Fall plants for pollinators in the spring.

Michael,

I need to know if you are still interested in all or some of the Begonias mentioned in the post at the bottom. Please contact me and/or post again on that thread.

Sorry to post here, but I can't find a way to contact you otherwise.

Here is a link that might be useful: Begonia luxurians post