I'm not really into mums that much but since nobody else has commented...

I'm also in z8 - Oregon. I sometimes pick up cheap grocery store mums in the autumn and they do well here in the ground, but I've found that slugs attack the new foliage in late winter, and if you don't control them the plants will be killed before spring.

Years ago I grew 'Clara Curtis', and I've noticed that she's still available from some of the better sources. CC was a good grower and I much prefer the single flowers to the grocery store pompoms. Sadly, I developed an allergy to pink, so no more Clara Curtis for me...but she was a pretty "good" pink as I recall.

The only mum in my current garden is 'Matchsticks' - and its a winner. First, the slugs don't seem to attack it like with grocery store plants. It's another single, and I'm in to hot colors these days, Matchsticks really fits the bill, both in appearance and in name. The petals really do resemble matchsticks, pale yellow shaft with red, bulbous tips...very unique. Also seems to handle our increasing summer heat and drought very well, also a plus going forward.

I can see adding more unique single types if I encounter any, based on my experience with Matchsticks.

Is "Matchsticks" considered a hardy mum for those of us in colder zones? I see it often in the grocery store, it makes a lovely potted plant, but I can't recall if I've seen it in the nurseries in the hardy mum section. It would be a great to pair with the "Purple Dome" fall-blooming asters I have in the beds.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with mums. Like everybody else, I often buy a few pots of them in the fall.

In the "old days", like 25 years ago when I first started gardening, I had quite a bit of success with overwintering those potted mums (and asters too). They survived winter, both in the ground and in pots, and lasted me several years.

Then I noticed about ten years ago or so, they were starting to be sold very early. Like JULY. July instead of the more usual September. No way I'm buying mums in July, or even August. Heck, I didn't even buy them in September lol.

So, the quandary - you buy them early, and they are done by fall, when you need them. You wait till fall, and there is not a good selection. And the biggest bummer of all, they never seem to survive winter any more. Our winters are for the most part milder than years past, and I try to overwinter them in the same manner I always have. They rarely survive and if they survive, they don't thrive.

For a while I tried buying/planting mums in spring. Supposedly that is how and when you are supposed to buy/plant them. I just never had great luck with them, mostly because I couldn't seem to get the pruning down. So I gave up pinching them back, enjoy my few mums in summer, and still buy potted mums for fall lol - I just don't expect them to come back.

Bluestone (link here) used to have a fairly decent selection of mums. I am racking my brain because I could swear there was a reputable nursery that specialized in mums, like in Michigan??? Does that ring a bell to anyone here, who can maybe chime in?

artinnature, I too love Clara Curtis. Thankfully, I do not have an allergy to pink (lol, you made me laugh!) and I do think CC is a lovely pink. I've also admired your Matchsticks in the past - beautiful!

Good luck alameda!

:)

Dee

Dee I think you are remembering Mums of Minnesota, which became Faribault Growers , which carried a bunch of hardy mums and those Mammoth mums. Michigan was close! Sadly they don't appear to do mail order or retail anymore, and even though they were hardy mine have slowly dissapeared over the years. I blame winter wet more than cold!

Personally I find the garden center mums to be boring, and am just fine with tossing them at the end of the season. Even the ones which overwinter are kinda boring, but colorful enough and easy enough to grow.

If you need a new addiction, King's mums is probably the biggest mum supplier for fancy kinds and people who love having something to fuss over can find it here, also if you search for heirloom mums be careful. Places like 3 porch farm and Harmony Harvest Farm will show up and those old mums are lush and subtle and unique and nothing like the cushion mums people buy for color today. They take more work with pinching and staking to produce amazing blooms, but if you can handle floppy and messy for months, the flowers are still cool even when neglected and face down in the mud after the first rain hits.

" Is "Matchsticks" considered a hardy mum for those of us in colder zones? " Here is a link Matchsticks

Pink is my least favorite colour but I do have a lot of it including Clara Curtis. it is a wonderful carefree plant. I an fond of Mary Stoker for the unusual peach colour. Duchess of Edinburgh is a ruby red.