Although I hope that one day I'll have the green thumb that my Mom does I admit that all too often I'm frustrated by our lack of space and sunshine and find little motivation to do anything about the plot of dirt we do have.  These was very clear over the summer when I watered less than often and as a result my flowers didn't look too hot.  Sure I can blame it on the huge tree that covers our house, but really I blame most of it on my lack of trying.

My Mom doesn't give up though.  She encouraged me to get some mums this fall for our front stoop and so we settled on some the other week.  The flowers were all closed, as they should be when you buy mums, but the flowers were in the same section of the store so we assumed they were the same color.



Not so.  When the flowers did bloom this past week it became quickly apparent that I had gotten one purple mum and one orange mum.  Oops.  I'll pretend like it was on purpose.  That I'm just following the trend of ombre and mixing up colors on our nails and our pants and being all bold but really, I would have liked them to be the same color.

Here's the things about mums that I've learned from my Mom, and things I'll know next year!

• Buy your mums without any flowers on them- they only flower once then they're done!
• Water them as needed once they're dry but not too often
• After they flower and before snow hits you can plant them in the ground.  If you leave them in their pot they most likely won't come back the following year but if you put them in the ground they most likely will!