White hardy mums frequently do this in the fall as they age. I think it might be a combination of the flowers aging and the cooler weather.

I believe the later blooming ones are affected by cold weather, too. Ones blooming now even developed beautiful deep red leaves.

I'm glad to know. Thank you both for commenting. I pinched them back til July 4th and then I stopped so they would bloom. They got so tall I finally put a cage around them. I think I'll pinch back until later next year but I kind of like them standing up too.

Nancy

Mine did the same thing. These were ones planted in the fall of '08. Lucky for me I had interplanted them with purple ones! If the other color had been, say, red, I would not have been so happy.

They bloomed much longer than all the other colors so it was nice.

you should have pinched again on 8/4 .... then you wouldnt have needed the cage ...

blooming is triggered by day length .... and they will have plenty of time to rebud .... for bloom in october ....

but i wouldnt go pinching in sept ...

have you even had any leafy veggie in the crisper turn color???? why not your mums outside ... or perhaps you didnt find it in the crisper, until it was a gelatinous pile of goo .. lol ...

ken

Ken, I've had lettuce turn a rusty color and was told that was just rust.

Linnea, mine bloomed longer than normal too. I planted them in 2006. My sis got them when I had back surgery. Last year they weren't tall like this but we didn't have that much rain like this year and the heat was less intense this year too.

Pinch in early August? I always used the "4th of July" rule, but they still get too leggy. I wasnÂt sure if there was a safe later cut off point (so to speakÂ) for pinching. So pinch twice?

I pinch earlier and often, 2 or 3 times, but I also stop pinching Asters around the 4th of July. It will cause side branching, resulting in a bushier and shorter plant and more potential flower buds, and it may delay the flower bud formation, causing it to bloom later into the fall. If you pinch too late into the summer, bloom may get cut short by frost or flower buds may fail to develop and open.

its been a long time.. but i seem to recall that when they get about 9 inches tall.. pinch back to 3.. or about 7/4

and then when they grow 9 more.. or about 8/4 pinch back to 6 ....

and then let them grown the last nine.. so you have the 15 to 20 inch plant they sell potted every year....

IN MY Z5 ... i never tried it in warmer climes ....

also.. unpinched.. they might bloom in sept.. and run out of steam in oct ... but thru pinching they bloom later in sept.. and last thru all of oct and into nov ...

if you have multiple plants... try differing methods on different plants.. and try to remember what you learn ...

and whatever you pinch off.. can be stuck in a pot with a plastic tent.. and most likely rooted until you have so many plants.. you wish some of them would die over the winter ...

i also did learn.. that not all mums are z5 hardy .... so not all of those pots you bought in the fall.. will make it thru winter.. depending on where they were shipped from ...

ken

The are so many varieties of mums being introduced into the market anymore it's a guess when to pinch any of them, unless you have the accompanying cultural information........and you won't. LOL.

When a mum blooms is programmed into its genes as a response to day length (night length is more accurate). They reach a trigger point where they will initiate buds and stop their vegetative growth.

There are two factors. One is the daylength that particular plant is triggered by, and the other is its response time to that trigger. Some respond as quickly as six weeks, some as long as ten.

What happens if you pinch later than you should is that the daylength starts triggering the plant to initiate bloom buds before new branching can occur to hold the blooms out from the foliage. When you see mums with blooms hidden in amongst the leaves you can almost bet someone pinched them too late. The bloom buds literally form near the leaf axils. You can safely pinch most mums back at least three times during the growing season and still get blooms on them before frost, if you time them right. They'll be bushier the more you pinch, and the height will be controlled better. If you have an extremely early flower, then you can sometimes pinch and have them rebloom in the later part of fall in my latitude. (zone 6)

Prolly more than you wanted to know. LOL.

You have not lost your mind..this does happen. Why, I don't know unless there is another flower that is strong in color near it. The first time this happened to our white mums, they took on a burgundy/white color, like it had bled or been dyed that way. That was back at my previous house and now we've been here almost 5 yrs. and I don't remember if they turned back to original color another year or not.