Id remove them and plant in well drained soil. Thats probably the only way they will come back next year. I overwintered some in the garage, but you have to make sure you water them.

Nice mums.

Cute picture.

As per Netcub's post, are "fall mums" winter hardy where you live?

They are very seldom so here.

Enjoy them in their pots.

Unless you live in zone 7 or further south and/ or plant them in spring, most modern commercial mum hybrids will not survive the winter.

Tough varieties like 'Clara Curtis' are exceptions, but they're not among the hybrids propagated en masse and falsely promoted by garden centers in the fall as "hardy".

It's a toss up as to if hardy mums planted in the fall will make it through winter. I don't see a zone for you.

eric oh is right about planting mums in the spring to give them plenty of time to root in and a better chance to survive the winter.

But, since you have them, why not plant them, minus the pot and try your luck? Nothing to lose but your time. And don't cut them down before winter. Leaving foliage and even dead flowers is supposed to help mums stay alive until spring. Then you can cut the dead stuff off when you see new green leaves coming up from the base. Good luck and let us know how things turned out.

Linda

I have had success in the fall, Z:4, with putting "garden mums" in the ground, pot and all, to overwinter and then planting without the pot in the spring. Also mulch well with shredded leaves and do not cut the stems back.

Many mums sold in fall containers are not hardy and, at least in our area, are not considered "garden mums." They are considered florist mums to enjoy in bloom and dispose of afterwards.

I dig them in, pot and all, filling soil up to around the top of the pot. So far its worked pretty good.... Except for the year mice moved in and chewed up every little bit of mum sprout and root.
I do it this way to avoid any root disturbance in the fall, and like others have said I leave the tops untouched.

**** look at that I can finally use the edit post function! I guess mnwsgal just wrote nearly the exact same thing.... Maybe this counts as a backup? I guess I shouldn't take two hours to actually finish up a comment ;)

This post was edited by kato_b on Sat, Sep 21, 13 at 22:44

I have had success planting just your ordinary Fall mums that you buy at the local nursery probably half of the time. Not every one has been hardy, but some of them have been coming back every spring for at least 5 years. So I try them just to see. I do take them out of their pot and plant them in the ground, somewhere I want to see them come back.

I've also ordered mums from Bluestone that are hardy to my zone and they all have worked out. They have a pretty good selection and I've bought those in the spring and planted them.

Very colorful display on your front porch!