I planted my florist mums in full bloom just to brighten the border for November: come April, digging where they’d been, I understood what had never happened underground
You planted those gorgeous October mums expecting them to return each spring—but by April, the soil was empty. The problem isn’t your care; it’s that florist mums are biologically incapable of developing winter roots because they’ve spent all their energy on flowers. Here’s the science behind the failure and how to finally grow mums that actually come back.