Suburban streets blooming with fall porch displays are a charming sight. However, if you would like to switch up your store-bought mums this year, we have some design tricks from floral experts.

With their array of colors and bloom forms, potted chrysanthemums are an attractive and inexpensive way to celebrate the season. Yet they can look so much better with some simple tweaks. It's not necessary to have a large porch or a huge budget to create an arrangement with high-end energy.

Discover what floral designers do to give budget mums a tasteful glow up with these outdoor fall décor ideas – and create a fall porch display that we'd bet Martha Stewart would approve of. This garden mums quart pot from Plant Addicts would be a great foundation for a beautiful front door feature.

Team Mums With Other Late-Bloomers

Mums are popular during the fall, as they thrive when many other plants are starting to fade. However, there are some other species that can work with these floral favorites in porch displays this time of year.

'Adding woody plant material will take potted mum displays to a whole new level,' says Jim Sutton, Associate Director of Display Design, Longwood Gardens.

'Choose perennial plants that can later be incorporated into your permanent landscaping. There are several varieties of hydrangeas, such as paniculata or oakleaf, that have been bred for fall interest. These can prove to be a very good investment.'

This Little Lime Punch Hydrangea from Plant Addicts can flower into fall with spectacular color.

Ornamental kale mixed with pansies can add an unexpected flourish to containers that persist well into cold weather too.

'Kale and pansies mixed with mums in different pots make a display far more interesting,' says Jim. 'Conifers, especially yellow foliage ones, are another way to elevate a simple mums display into something much more sophisticated.'

Mixing ornamental grasses, foliage or branches with mums is a striking option that's gaining popularity. Floral designers like to mix other eye-catching stems into displays too.

'Adding cut branches, fresh or dried, will add interest, texture and height to these displays,' says Jim. 'Colored dogwood stems (yellow or red) will stay fresh in a fall container that’s well watered, can transition to a holiday container, and often will root in giving you another plant the following year.'

This Arctic Fire Red Twig Dogwood from Plant Addicts is suitable for a container – and would look gorgeous in the garden during the winter.

'Curly willow can generally be purchased from a local florist and, if fresh, will act the same,' says Jim. 'For more drama, birch branches or birch white poles can be added to containers if large enough.

'There are several new cultivars of Heuchera on the market with nice fall foliage. Taller grasses work well too.'

'Using architectural foliage and branches is a great way to elevate your display,' says Calvert Crary, Executive Director, FlowerSchool New York. 'Tall stems can draw the eye to certain focal points, where you group your arrangement for maximum impact.

'If you want the mums to be the star, use grasses to create a “backdrop” that lets the mums stand out front and center.'

This Feather Falls Carex Plant from Burpee would add structure to a container display.

Opt for Oversized Pots

Leaving mums in their nursery pots can look a little lacklustre. Aside from placing individual plants in smart outer pots, floral designers have other tricks to make store-bought mums look more sophisticated.

Calvert likes to remove the nursery pots and group small plants together in an oversized container for a more impactful display. This also allows you to replace plants if necessary.

'Plant your store-bought mums in standard black pots and place those pots inside a larger vessel,' says Calvert. 'This way you can easily change the look of your display without needing to repot the mums when you want a fresh look.'

Grouping containers in coordinating shapes and sizes together is a trusted technique for garden designers. This method can work well for front porch displays too. Jim likes to place mums in attractive planters of different sizes to bring extra pazazz to the look and feel of the plants.

'Whichever plant composition you choose, putting a common chrysanthemum in a beautiful pot elevates its position,' says Jim. 'Grouping containers of varying sizes and heights adds to the impact of any mum display.'

It's not necessary to have huge numbers of potted mums for an impressive arrangement. Odd numbers are a faithful formula, so just three mums grouped together in coordinating containers will look far more impressive than one plant on its own.

'When selecting your plants, bear in mind that repeating a hue or staying within the same color family typically lends more impact to an arrangement,' adds Calvert.

As you can see, it doesn't take too much time or effort to switch up basic store-bought potted mums into an expensive-looking outdoor arrangement.

'Chrysanthemums bloom all at once for a strong late-season color statement,' says Jim. 'They are also very economical, giving you a lot of value for the cost.

'Adding gourds and/or pumpkins in and around the containers is often pleasing to the eye. Grapevine can also be artfully intertwined around the containers to draw the eye through the whole composition.

'And since front porches generally offer some cover, it's easy to extend the season elegantly with these plants.'

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