Well, hello gardening friends—now that we’re home, the very first thing I do is go check on my plants. In this video I’m giving a real-life mum pruning update and showing the results from deadheading the spent blooms. It’s been a learning process, but honestly it’s been really cool to see a second round of buds forming, and the bees (and all kinds of pollinators) are absolutely enjoying it. I walk through a few different pots—purple, orange/yellow, and some that are a little questionable—and point out where I trimmed, what’s re-budding, and what might be done. I’m in Louisiana, Zone 8A, and it’s still around 80° even though we already had a light frost (the mums were fine). The big takeaway: if you want another flush, you’ve got to deadhead—just cut off the flowers that are done and keep an eye on watering. Some of mine got really dry, so I’m watching to see if they rebound, and I’m also talking about planting mums in the ground so they can come back year after year (some do great, some are kind of a crapshoot). I also share how I buy them small and cheap, pot them up bigger, and why I’m totally fine using Miracle-Gro for flowers when I’m not consuming the plant.