Dr. Neil Anderson, Professor and Department Head from the University of Minnesota, crossing chrysanthemums. | Alicia McCann, University of Minnesota Dept. of Horticultural Science
I’m a sucker for mums each fall and can’t resist bringing home a load every year. So, asking industry folks what new mum developments are coming to market was a treat, especially as they introduce new shapes, expanded families of mums, and even more flower and color longevity.
Longer Color, Longer Blooms
People love a good value, and mums that hold their color longer and hold their blooms longer are in focus by breeders and sellers. Expect to see better performance on the shelf for consumers.
“There’s nothing worse than bringing a mum home, and it immediately fades,” says Jessie McMillin, Chrysanthemum Product Manager for Ball Horticultural Company. “I’m looking for varieties where the color stays for a long time.” She adds that not only does the end consumer appreciate it, but the predictable and reliable color longevity also makes it easier on growers.
Older varieties of mums often faded, shifting from a brilliant red to a faded red or even pink after a couple of weeks. But breeders are achieving longer color hold, and improved flower retention. Alicain Carlson, Ph.D., Head of Marketing – Americas at Syngenta Flowers, talks about their efforts.
“We’re focusing heavily on color and longevity — specifically, improving the performance of mums for the end consumer. Our goal is to ensure mums retain their color for longer and stay true to the color they were when purchased. For example, if you buy a red mum, we want it to stay as close to red as possible without fading to orange or pink. We’re working on improving both color retention and flower longevity to address these issues.”
While it may seem there would be no new colors under the sun for chrysanthemums, that’s not exactly true.
“We’re expanding beyond the traditional colors of white, yellow, and red. Yellow remains the most popular color. People love yellow mums. So we have a yellow variety for every timing and response week, from early to mid- and late-season options. But we’re also exploring more bronzes and bi-colors. These shades work beautifully in combinations and are great on their own as well, especially for retail programs,” Carlson says.
Expanding the Families
Look at a product catalog and the sheer number of mums can seem overwhelming, especially when selecting a variety to add to your program. But breeders have been working to expand mum families, bringing more colors to named families and making it easier for growers to add a new genetic package to their lineup.
“We are focusing more on adding families to our product line. If you’re a grower looking to add new mums, families are the easiest way to bring new genetics into your program,” says McMillin. A family will nominally have between four and seven colors, blooms at the same time, and has consistent form and vigor, simplifying planning and eliminating guesswork when making mixed pots. Any group of two, three, or four mums in the same family should make a great combination. “People are really going to notice more organization with families instead of a bunch of random, stand-alone varieties.”
Adding more colors to mum families means creating color combinations gets easier, and they’re big sellers.
Combining mums with other species offers interest. Here, Syngenta has paired mums with marigolds for a pop of fall color. | Syngenta Flowers
“Combos are a big focus with mums, especially tricolor combinations where all the habits match and the colors grow together nicely,” says Carlson. “At Syngenta, we have mum families, like our Pamela and Jacqueline families. Within these families, all the mums share similar habits and timings, allowing them to be mixed together seamlessly. We’re also introducing new colors within these families to expand the possibilities.”
Shipping and Durability
Unless you’re growing it right where you sell it, you’ll need to move or ship mums, and that can come with problems. Older mum varieties often had problems with splitting, making them unsellable at the destination. McMillin explains the lengths she goes to during trialing to prevent those problems.
“I want mums to perform predictably — no getting out of control, no issues with splitting. We’re looking for a flexible mum that can handle being transported on a truck without collapsing during delivery.”
But how does one test a mum for durability? “One of the more fun parts of trialing is our durability tests. I’ll pick up a mum about chest height and drop it. Then I ask, ‘Did it survive?’ I also do a wiggle test, which customers always love. I kneel down, wiggle the whole mum, and you can tell pretty quickly if it’s strong or if it’s a bad one,” she says. “They can split right down the middle if they’re not strong enough. It’s one of the major things I test for. I wiggle all the mums.” My high school guidance counselor never told me about that job, and I’m a bit mad about it.
Hot New Mums
It wouldn’t be an article about what’s new with mums if we didn’t have a section about new varieties. New colors and new shapes are coming soon.
“We have several exciting new mums in the pipeline,” says McMillin. “One standout is ‘Metrona Bronze’, a stunning new commercial variety for this year. It resembles a burning coal, but with a beautiful European shape and super flexibility, making it easy to ship. The mum features a vibrant neon yellow center surrounded by a bright red halo. It will be an eye-catcher for growers.”
This ‘Metrona Bronze’ from Ball Seed wins the proverbial gold medal for new colors this year. | Mark Widhalm/Ball Seed
They’re also introducing two new whites: ‘Astral White’, one of their earliest-blooming varieties, and ‘Paper White’, a mid-blooming variety with large, stunning blooms. A second bronze mum, ‘Sweet Potato Pie’, offers a gorgeous orangey bronze tone and a perfect European shape.
Bronze might be the new yellow for mums, and Syngenta is also bringing a new one to market.
“Our ‘Melanie Bronze’ bi-color is a standout. It mixes well in combos and has a unique look compared to a straightforward, clear color,” says Carlson. But she says it’s not just new colors but new ways of displaying mums to get customers’ attention.
“Combining mums with other species is one of the most interesting aspects for me. We’ve paired mums with ornamental kale and snapdragons, gaillardia, marigolds, coleus, and even zinnias. Consumers love that vigorous growth because it’s fun and lively. That’s what I’ll be talking to everyone about at California Spring Trials this year: mums and how to create exciting combinations.”
How about a new mum that isn’t a mound or ball shape? That’s precisely what Dr. Neil Anderson, Professor and Department Head from the University of Minnesota, is talking about. Their chrysanthemum breeding program is one of the world’s oldest public-sector breeding programs and the only one in North America.
“Groundcover types, which we call Magic Carpets, grow horizontally. They typically stay very low to the ground, reaching only a few inches in height — maybe up to 5 or 6 inches when they’re in flower. They form a carpet of flowers in the fall and are ideal for use in hanging baskets, containers, or at the front of landscape beds,” Anderson says.
Flowering in late summer and early fall, just like traditional garden mums, these plants have been in the works for quite some time but will be released in the near future, perhaps as early as next year. “This concept actually goes back several decades. We noticed this unique trait right around the time the ‘Purple Wave’ petunia had just come out. I was working at PanAmerican Seed back then and was very familiar with both the challenges and the economic impact of the Wave series. It revolutionized how petunias were used. I think the Magic Carpet series could have a similarly transformative effect on the chrysanthemum market,” says Anderson. The first
release will be a white variety, but the series will have all the colors.