Mums the word

purple mums

 September is here so the mums have arrived on the scene. Thank goodness for stores selling them all full and rounded and healthy looking. The ones I planted last year are either leggy and sparse or bloomed two months ago. I know it's due to negligence lack of pruning.  Mums are fall. I don't enjoy mums in a flower arrangement but love love love them in a Fall display in a garden. Can't get enough of them. Must have all colors. Bigger the better. I bought a few smaller plants for the window boxes,

September is bursting out in mums

 and large ones, at the same price might I add but from a different store, for the yard. I choose the ones that haven't opened up so they'll last longer. I also found these red coleus on sale. They are next to the washed out, Failure-to-thrive coleus I planted earlier in the summer.

angelic mums

When we went away for vacation I asked a neighbor to water my impatiens but no one loves your garden the way you do, and most of them perished. I need to see color, and with so much shade it's a challenge. Mums like sun, but will tolerate shade for the few weeks it takes to bloom. I might just be tempted to buy a few more. You are not getting a view of the front yard, which would be terrific  decorated with mums, hay bales, and pumpkins if it weren't overgrown, covered in weeds and crab grass. I did put a couple mums on the walkway next to the flowers that survived our time away. In my dreams my yard rivals Longwood.
What are you doing to sing in Fall? LeeAnna