Frost Will Kill These Fall Flowers in New York – Here’s Why
Have you noticed that its getting colder at night? As soon as the air starts to get crisp, New Yorkers love to go out and buy up all the mums. Here's my question, with frost filled nights in our forecast, will your mums survive the cold?
Ask any New Yorker and they’ll tell you that it isn’t fall without mums. With the bright purples, soft pinks, fiery oranges, and sunny yellows, its like mums were made for New York. We want our mums when spring and summer flowers start to die for the year.
For most of us, when we hear the word “frost”, we'll haul out our old sheets and blankets to cover the flowers. We want to keep them alive as long as we can but we don’t think about covering our mums. After all, they should be able to survive the frost, right? Well, sort of.
Two Kinds Of Mums
There are two kinds of mums: The "bring it on, frost!" hardy mums and the bit more sensitive tender mums. Hardy mums can handle light frost like pros and laugh in the face of chilly temperatures. Plus, they're perennials, so they can make a comeback each year without breaking a sweat.
When it comes to tender mums, they're a little more fragile when it comes to frost. These mums are annuals, which means they only live for one season, and they need a little love to make sure they survive frost.
How To Help Your Mums Survive The Frost
If you want to make sure your fall flowers survive nights with frost, there are some things you’ll need to do. You can mulch your mums by putting a layer of mulch or leaves around their base. It's like giving them a warm blanket to snuggle up with.
You can also put some sheets over your mums at night to keep the frost off of them. Don't forget to take the sheets off during the day so your mums can get some sun. You should also make sure that you water your mums enough but not too much.
Keep the soil damp but not swampy. If our mums get too swampy they’ll turn into little mum-sicles. Follow these tips and you'll enjoy the beautiful color of your mums much longer.