EasyBloom Forum

I may already know the answer to this question but I'll ask an expert first. I live in Central Florida and I bought mums for my "fall scene". They aren't doing very well. The leaves and stems look firm and green but the blossoms are dying off. We haven't had many days of temps below 85 since I got them. Could the heat be an issue? Also my caladium looks like something is eating at the leaves. Any known pests and how to get rid of them? Thank you!

Hey Jacquelyn...Mums come in a variety of forms, but I'm guessing that you are growing exhibition mums which technically are perennial plants. This means they grow for several growing seasons. This also means that they should flower season after season. Luckily, horticulturalists are very aware of how to get mums to flower: mums need long nights to bloom. Fortunately, for you the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer, so your mums should bloom on their own. In greenhouses, mum growers will pull shade cloth over their growing mums to make the mums "think" the nights are long. Mums can be fooled into thinking that the nights are not long if there is even a small amount of light that breaks up a long period of dark. For example, a lit porch or lights from inside the house that shine on your mums can break up the long night needed to induce flowering.

If I were you, I would remove the spent blooms off of your mums. If they don't receive any type of artificial light during night, they should be blooming once again shortly (could be a couple of months though).

As for temperature and mums, mums are not affected by temperature when discussing if it will make the mums flower. Temperature will affect the length of time it takes for the flowers to fully develop after the mums have already started the blooming process. Naturally, the colder the temperatures, the longer it will take for the blooms to fully develop. Also, very low temperatures can cause the blooms to develop poorly or even arrest their development.

As for your Caladium, I am surprised that their leaves have big chunks taken out of them. Usually if Caladiums have some type of pest problem it is with bacterial or fungal leaf spots. Also, Caladium is known for having high concentrations of oxalate in their leaves which normally causes upset stomach for "higher" animals. I wonder if you may have a slug problem. Also, caterpillars can chomp on those leaves, but that's not as common as the microbial pests. If you see any caterpillars, simply remove them from the plant. There are pesticides/insecticides available which will kill the caterpillars as well. You might also want to check to see if your Caladium is getting direct spray from either a sprinkler/hose or is directly under a water runoff of some sort. Caladiums have big, delicate leaves (as I'm sure you are aware) and can easily be ripped by physical damage. Also, just an FYI...many Caladiums will lose their leaves as winter approaches anyway. The leaves drop and the underground bulbs may come back for another growing season in spring. I hope all this info is helpful to you. Let me know if you have any further questions. Cheers...Robby