Newly planted mums that were dark maroon with yellow centers are losing their color. The maroon is fading & I don't know why. I cleaned out the bed that had weeds & grass in it and loosened the dirt prior to planting. We covered the ground with black weed preventer and then planted the mums & covered with a layer of cedar mulch.

I mixed some HastaGrow & water and watered them with it. Are they not getting enough water through the black plastic??

I'll cover the subject in more detail in the Dec DIRT, but for now - don't use plactic fabrics of any kind around plants. Remove them if they exist.

Thanks Howard. We will be looking forward to reading about it the Dirt.