Hi Terry, I've given you a link to King's Mums in the states. Scroll down till you reach garden cushion mums, pics with their bloom dates. Hope this helps. Some of these you can find up here especially if you can get in touch with a nearby Chrysanthemum Society or Club. They usually have great plant sales in the spring.

Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: Mums

Hi Twrosz,
Your request sent me outside to get this tag.
The name is Chrysanthemum x morifolium 'Showbiz'. The plant was given to me a couple of years ago as a memorial gift. I gave it zero chance of surviving in my zone.
Here's a picture of it from yesterday. It's been blooming for weeks.
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Annette, thanks for the link ... yes, many very nice chrysanthemums there! Unfortunately, my season is probably too short for many, as most are shown to begin flowering in late Sept :( ... frost comes too early here!

North53, I had been looking at this one at the nurseries and should have picked it up, I guess I still can! I see that you're in zone 1 ... these really are some very hardy mums then!

Terry

Terry, I have a couple of answers for you, even though I don't know whether these varieties are on sale, your side of the Big Pond:
- Chrysanthemum 'Apricot' is, by far, the earliest, starting to bloom every year here from end July (yes! July!) and going on until frosts. It's a fairly low one (1,5'), and never needed staking for me:
(pics taken on August 5th)
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- The other one is not always so early, but is the earliest of my other mums (about 25 different ones...): it's Duchess of Edinbourgh'. This one definitely needs double pruning in spring, and finally staking in the end in rich humous soils. It starts blooming for me somewhere between early august and end august, according to the weather:
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My garden is zone 7, so I don't have experience with colder climates, but both are really worth a try!
Zephirine

I don't know how much help this will be, since I can't give names, but I have a few old mums that were bought as impulse buys in the fall - you know, at supermarkets, garden centers, etc. Not really part of a garden plan but the darn thing looked so nice I had to have a pot for the front porch.

Well, at the end of the season I always plant these mums in the hopes that they will come back, and some have. I have noticed that when I neglect to pinch them back, which is almost every year, they begin to bloom in June.

So, my long-winded point is, perhaps if you don't pinch back your mums, even though pinching is always advised, they will bloom earlier for you?

BTW, that Tigertail is just beautiful!

:)
Dee

My Favorite 'Yellow Quill' begins blooming in late July/early August for me.

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My computer had crashed, so I was unable to respond to any postings.

Zephirine, those are very nice and indeed the 'Apricot' variety flowers very early! ... unfortunately, I doubt I'd be able to come across them here in Canada :(

Mnwsgal ... 'Yellow Quill' is a real looker, I'll keep my fingers crossed on finding it and the one Zephirine has shown.

Dee, I don't prune any of my mums, the season here is just too short, I did pick up a few plants at HomeDepot, they had finished up a good month ago and hope they'll make the winter and flower early next season, one can always hope!

Thanks!

Twrosz, 'Yellow Quill' is a 'My Favorite' mum. I also have 'My Favorite Twilight Pink' which blooms late Aug/early Sept. and 'My Favorite Autumn Red' which blooms later, maybe because it is in a more shaded area.

They are nice because they do not need to be pinched or mulched in our area.

All the mum photos above are beautiful.