Brighten up fading gardens with colorful mums

If your summer annuals or the perennials in your garden are starting to fade, it might be a good idea to think "mum's the word."

This flower is almost synonymous with fall and has a long and rich history of beautifying gardens around the world.

As I visit gardens across the country, I see beautiful displays of these flowers. The rich shades of orange, bronze yellow and crimson are accented by white, lavender and purple flowers, and mums put on a spectacular, long-lasting color display.

Not everyone has beautiful chrysanthemums in their gardens, but that is not a problem. Your local garden center has everything from small starter plants in 4-inch containers to large, showy planters overflowing with flowers.

Because of the availability of the plants, many gardeners choose to use them more as annual bedding plants instead of long-term perennials. Whatever method you choose for your garden, there are many ways to use these in your flowerbeds.

Consider these possibilities:

Add mums where flowers have faded away. Look at your garden where flowers — such as hollyhocks — have already bloomed and been cut down.

Slip in some blooming mums to give a boost to those bare areas.

Look at where diseases took out some flowers. Cut your losses on plants such as tall phlox, monarda and zinnia that may be covered with powdery mildew.

Put the mums into those areas for more great color all fall.

Even if your other flowers look good, add some mums as transition flowers.

As you remove your summer annuals to replace them with the spring bulbs, pansies and other flowers, use mums to avoid the empty-bed look.

Although these flowers are low maintenance, there are a few factors to consider before planting.

Soil is important. Most plantings are short lived and do not come back in subsequent years because of what is usually called "winter kill."

Most garden mums are perfectly cold hardy in Utah, but the roots have to have oxygen. In heavy clay or compacted soils with inadequate drainage, the roots quickly die and the top of the plant soon follows.

Add coarse organic matter to the soil, create raised beds or grow the plants in artificial soil in pots.