what else can you do??? water them ...

but i dont understand why they didnt stay out doors ...

please understand.. you may have killed them.. with TOO MUCH love ...

but i will keep my fingers crossed for you

ken

Is there new growth at the base of the plant under this year's growth? There should be.

Most mums looks pretty miserable this time of year, but new growth tells you all is well. They should be dormant so they don't really need much water. They were cuttings though, so the root systems may be fairly weak. Just wait and see what happens in the Spring...

It's hard to know if they're dead. Some mums are more hardy than others. I bring pots of established mums into my unheated garage BEFORE a hard freeze. About 4 out of 5 make it. They look like dead sticks until spring and then send up new growth from the base. I water about every 4-6 weeks if they look dry. Because yours were new cuttings I don't know if they came through the hard freeze, but I'd wait for spring and hope for the best.

mums root freely.. and quickly..

i put no stock in the suggestion that a mid-summer cutting.. was too immature to winter over outside..

presuming the mum itself was hardy ...

in my z5 MI ... ALL MUMS die to the ground in winter ... coming from what i think is called basal shoots.. right at ground level..

that is where OP should be looking for life ...

and next time.. bring them in BEFORE the first hard freeze.. not AFTER ...

what i would have done.. was take additional cuttings in mid fall.. before frost.. and started those indoors.. and cycled thru few generations of cutting during the cold winter.. shooting for a few young vigorous plants.. come time for them to go back outside ...

and.. as noted above.. MANY of the mums 'forced' for retail.. are not fully hardy in many areas ... and you dont find out.. until they dont came back .. lol.. [in other words.. you never know about that store that ships all its plants from ARKANSAS ... whether they will live in z5 over winter] ...

ken

Over 5 years later this is still a useful thread. My question is: is there any part of the dry brown stem or foliage that is usefully and beneficially pruned? When should this be done? I'm in northern Virginia...

Hi Christopher, I'm in northern VA also. Stay out of your garden until March. Seriously. I know it's gonna be 60 degrees tomorrow, but stay out of the garden. Don't walk on damp clay soil, don't trim anything. If you did peek at your mums, you should see green at the base. The brown stems need to stay on and any leaf litter that's collected around them can stay too to provide extra insulation. In mid-March you can trim back the brown stems.

Water them well and cover with evergreen branch or cover them with some mulch.

I disagree with Cathy: our soil is heavy clay that really doesn't drain much. Although it's been a dry winter so far, my gardens are still damp enough for mums. Mums don't like wet winter soil so I group them in the garden with agastache, dusty miller, sedum, bearded iris, lamb's ears, etc and I never water that area. Now if you have any azaleas, mahonia, camellias, rhododendrons or other evergreen shrubs, those guys would appreciate a drink this weekend.

Thanks to both of you. I do have the heavy clay. In the planting spots the area is now raised 6 inches with plenty of compost and "horticultural" grit. That took a while to accomplish. I will test the moisture with a hygrometer, and report back.

Well hello again, Christopher. I've been out puttering in the garden today and I did trim back the mums LOL. All the brown perennials got trimmed back and I picked up plenty of branches brought down by last weekend's wind storm.

My yard now perhaps looks like zone 7 in January. My mums are quite hardy, and if I have time in the fall between hard freeze and snow, I whack them down to ground level in the fall and they do fine. If I work in the garden in early spring, I am working in places where I don't have to walk on wet soil, so standing on paths or a rock wall.

So nice to have the follow-up information. Thanks. Well I do have some small growth from the root area, even from some delightfully good value $1 clearance mums from the orange store. I'll take a photo today. I didn't find my hygrometer yet as the sheds are a bit jumbled from "commando gardening" in the winter. I did find the soil thermometer, and even in a sunny spot it was 38F all the way down to 4 inches deep.

Here's a photo of the "growth from the root area"

You can cut off and remove the dead stems. All new growth will come from the ground.

Be careful removing the brown stems. I have found that they can sometimes pull out of the soil, roots and all. If so, replace the green and roots and water like a transplant. Or move it to another area where you want a new plant.