23 Ideas for Fall Decorating with Mums

Bring mums to the table with sweet miniature arrangements made out of pumpkins. To make this project, start with an heirloom pumpkin, remove the top and carve out a bowl shape. Place a saucer with water in the bottom and add the floral foam.

Learn step-by-step instructions in this guide.

Build an abundant display on your front porch with pots of mums and lots of pumpkins. Personalize the display when you select a variety of shapes, sizes and colors of pumpkins and chrysanthemums. Accessorize with outdoor decor items like lanterns and patio stools.

Tip: Keep the arrangement balanced, but not too coordinated. The goal is a natural bounty of harvest blooms and gourds.

Craft a unique arrangement when you take a harvest decor classic - Indian corn - and embellish a planter. This easy project uses rubber bands to secure the corn stalks to the planter and ribbon to cover the bands. Pop a potted mum in the center for a stylish display.

Get step by step instructions for this project.

Just like the miniature pumpkins filled with flowers, you can take a larger gourd and make a full-on centerpiece.

Try these tips for keeping cut mums fresh:

• Start with a vase of warm water.
• Use sharp pruning shears to cut stems at an angle, remove foliage on the lower part of stem, and place stem in water.
• You can put a fresh cut on stems while you're arranging them in the vase or pumpkin.

Bring a variety of mums into your home for a lush harvest display. Select a variety of colors and sizes and pick up new cachepots and vases for your arrangement.

Mix pots of mums with cut flower bouquets for sophisticated style. Candles and interesting heirloom pumpkins complete the look.

Windowbox floral displays are perfect for the cooler days in fall, when evaporation and extreme heat make it difficult to keep flowers fresh. Perk up your windowbox with pots of mums. You can put the mums with or without pots directly in the window box and cover the base with soil, sphagnum sheet moss or a fine-textured mulch. Pansies, celosia, creeping Jenny and flowering kale make lovely counterparts for the colorful mums.

Setting up a harvest display is easy when you add container-ready potted mums. These beautiful blooms feature embellishments like fountain grass and cordyline spikes to simplify your decor project. Keep these plants in their nursery pots and drop them into your favorite planters for a gorgeous autumn display.

Don't be afraid to bring mums into your spooky Halloween displays. Their bright colors and textures fit in perfectly with spooky decor. Try painting pumpkins, real or faux, with ghostly white paint and stencils with spider webs and more creepy designs.

Tip: White mums amplify the white pumpkins, for bright displays in low light.

Dress up Skelly, the beloved 12-foot skeleton with a mum-studded floral crown. Get the look by starting with a 24-inch grapevine wreath base and place chunks of soaked floral foam throughout. Add chrysanthemum stems and fill in with your favorite fall foliage and flowers.

Tip: Designers crafted Skelly's floral with a grapevine wreath that's 24-inches wide on the outside and 17-inches on the inside. You may have to stretch and shimmy the wreath to get a good fit on Skelly's skull.

Mums bring bold color and texture to fall mixed containers. These arrangements look great beside gates, by front doors and on patios.

You can use drop-in containers with mums or pot plants directly into potting soil. Mixed containers require large planters, at least 18 inches in diameter.

Keep the thriller-filler-spiller formula in mind when potting up mixed containers.

• Thriller plants have height and texture and set the rhythm for the arrangement.
• Fillers do exactly that, filling the middle space with masses of color and texture.
• Spillers draw the eye to the edge as they drape over the edge of the container.

Versatile chrysanthemums can be the star of a sophisticacted cut flower arrangement, too. Trim long stems from the colorful plants, strip the leaves and display in your favorite silver bowl.

Fill in the bouquet with fall-hued foliage and seed pods from your landscape (or craft store) and place on your hall table or set as a centerpiece for a harvest dinner party.

Tip: Floral foam or a floral frog makes floral arrangements easy to execute.

Set a stunning table with personal mini bouquets at each place setting. Cut stems from mums with button-sized blooms to surround a single stunning bloom, like a daisy, sunflower, zinnia or even a larger mum.

You can set the mini bouquets in carved pumpkins, or make it easy on yourself and use Mason jars or other small, inexpensive vessels.

Galvanized steel tubs give a rustic, country vibe to your outdoor decor. This fall, pack galvanized tubs, new or vintage, with big, beautiful pots of mums. Fill in gaps with smaller plants in coordinating autumn colors.

Tip: Galvanized tubs make it easy to water plants. Just let the water drain through the nursery pots and, if you need to, pour the excess out of the galvanized tub.

The classics are called that for a reason. Take timeless blue and white porcelain objects, for example. Start a collection of blue and white vessels like ginger jars, pitchers and vases and you'll always have a sophisticated container for flower arrangements.

Blue and white elevates the colorful mum, coleus and creeping Jenny in the above arrangement.

Tip: Always line ceramic containers with a plastic dish to keep water from spilling through any cracks. Put soft felt pads on the bottom of vessels that will sit on wood surfaces.

What's the easiest way to bring fall's glorious shades of red, orange and yellow to your yard? Gather your favorite planters and pop pots of colorful mums in them and place around your landscape.

Tip: Place pots at varying heights to fill up your space and enforce the feeling of fall abundance.

It's a classic idea: line porch steps with pumpkins and pots of fresh fall chrysanthemums. Take the display up a notch when you vary the pot sizes and bloom colors. Purchase heirloom pumpkins in interesting shapes and hues and arrange them throughout your display.

Tip: With proper watering and care, mums can last up to the first frost in your area. When purchasing mums, look for fresh plants with tight buds. You can count on about 10 days for buds to open up to full blooms.

Bring beautiful mums up to eye level in hanging baskets. You can often find these in the Garden Center already planted in the hanging baskets. If not available, they're a snap to assemble on your own. Be sure to water the plants thoroughly before hanging them up.

Embellish your hanging basket with fall-friendly foliage like coleus and creeping Jenny.

Cool early fall days and nights are perfect for porch sitting. Set up your outdoor living room with soft pillows and a throw blanket on your outdoor sofa and place baskets of harvest-hued mums all around. Enjoy the crisp bug-free autumnal breezes from your cozy perch.

Never underestimate the power of rusty gardening tools to bring charm to your harvest display. The crusty bronze hue of an old wheelbarrow speaks to decades of outdoor use and serves as a handy (and portable) display for pots of mums.

Round out your harvest display with fall favorites like heirloom pumpkins, straw bales, flowering kale and clutches of Indian corn.

Before you give away your beloved childhood bicycle, take it for a spin as a fun fall display. If you have a bicycle basket, just pop a big beautiful mum pot in, otherwise, you might try securing a basket to the handlebars and placing the flowerpot inside.

Prop your flowery wheels in front of a fence, beside a gate, alongside a porch or by a mailbox for freewheeling fall inspiration.

Create a cozy cottage core vibe on your front porch with mums and pumpkins. For this look, pull from the same color family with orange blooms, terra cotta planters, and traditional orange pumpkins in a variety of sizes. No matter the size of your space, lean in to your maximalist instincts with abundant blooms and gourds.

Fluffy, colorful mums are ideal settings for fun Halloween props in your spooky display. Look for witches' legs and creepy crows in your local store and online for surprising and whimsical moments.

Mums can be creepy, too. In the right light and with the right accessories, they can be downright spooky. For this look, use white mums that will glow softly in the moonlight and place them on steps with pumpkins. Fill in with flameless candles that flicker without the danger of fire.