November Gift Flowers

Red chrysanthemums keeping my kitchen Thanksgiving turkeys company. (Charlotte Ekker Wiggins photo)

Chrysanthemums

Now we are back to growing flowers in the USDA Hardiness zone 5 that match up with the traditional gift flowers.

Chrysanthemums, plants especially prized by Japanese gardeners, stand for November birthdays. Also known as “mums,” these long-lasting in a vase flowers come in a variety of shapes and colors.

White mums signify innocence and purity, while yellow ones indicate that a loved one feels slighted. Too bad because yellow mums are a favorite bright fall flower in the garden.

If you are adding mums to your garden, make sure to pick up hardy garden mums. With a little care over winter, they will return for many years helping to not only add color but also as a natural bug deterrent.

Charlotte

November Gift Flower: Mums

These yellow mums were on sale at a local grocery store and have been blooming for a month.

November Gift Flower: Mums

The traditional gift flower gift for November is Chrysanthemum, also known as Mums.

In fall, mums are available in a wide range of colors and styles including white, red, burgundy, brown, orange and my favorite, yellow. I tend to buy plants on sale and mums are no exception. Once they stop blooming, stores tend to mark them down for a quick sale. Those mums can be planted, spent blooms removed and they will continue to bloom through the first frost. Water through winter to help them establish and you will have mums for years to come.

To keep them in bushy form, mums should be pinched through July 4 to encourage them to bush out for fall bloom. Mark a favorite calendar to remind yourself to keep them pinched until mid-summer.

Mums are a favorite plant to recommend for beginning gardeners because they are so easy to grow and bloom for a long time.

Daisy mums are getting rooted in my mum nursery at Bluebird Gardens.

Mums can also be started from cuttings, just make sure to use rooting hormone to give them a good boost. Plant in good soil and keep watered until plants root in approximately 2-4 weeks.

In the Language of Flowers, mums represent hope. Red mums represent love; yellow slighted love and white truth.

Mums are not considered gift flowers in the Orient, there it is considered a funeral flower.

Charlotte