In the fall, pots of bushy, bright mums show up on front steps and outside stores. A mum (short for chrysanthemum) blooms late in the year, from late summer into fall. Growers raise them and sell them in pots. This quiz counts only hardy garden mums in pots — the kind grown to be planted outdoors. In USDA’s 2024 count of greenhouse and nursery crops, 42 states have a printed figure; 7 more are hidden behind the withheld mark, and Nevada has no line at all. Put these three in order, most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→3 in order
California! It’s huge and sunny, so it must sell the most mums. Easy 🐾
2Answer
The order USDA printed is…
New Jersey — 9,355,381 pots of garden mums sold, more than one pot in every six of the 53,482,224 USDA counted for the whole country, and about 1.19× second-place Michigan. That is the largest figure USDA printed. These are census estimates, not exact counts, and Michigan is not far behind. Everything USDA did not print adds up to only 188,300 pots, less than any of the top three, so no hidden state can climb past them. New Jersey’s nickname is the Garden State — a fun match, but USDA does not say why New Jersey’s growers sell so many garden mums, and this quiz does not guess. And Biscuit’s California? In this garden-mum line it is 17th, with 829,302 pots. But USDA keeps a separate line for florist mums — greenhouse mums that are not expected to survive a cold winter outdoors — and on that line California has the biggest printed number, 1,277,992 pots. On that line, 18 states are withheld and some have no line at all, and everything USDA did not print adds up to more than California’s figure, so that is only a first place among the printed states. Garden mums or florist mums? Say which, and the answer changes.
📚 BackgroundWhy do mums show up in the fall? North Carolina State University’s Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, describing the autumn mum, says: “While the plants will begin to grow in the summer and spring, it does not flower until the autumn.” The same page calls it “a complex hybrid involving five Chinese species,” and says “There are hundreds of cultivars with various colors and characteristics.” Late flowers matter to insects too: “The flowers attract pollinators, making them a welcome late-season nectar source in a pollinator garden.” The page does not say why New Jersey’s growers sell more garden mums in pots than any other state’s. Neither does this quiz.(North Carolina State University Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, “Chrysanthemum x morifolium (Autumn Mum …),” Description. Quotations unchanged)↗ (opens in a new tab)
California! It’s huge and sunny, so it must sell the most mums. Easy 🐾
3Compare
Garden mums sold in pots (number of pots, 2024)
🇺🇸 United States (national)53,482,224 pots
New Jersey#19,355,381 pots
Most: New Jersey (9,355,381 pots); smallest printed number: Idaho (6,849 pots). Remember this is only the hardy-garden-mum pot line. Florist mums have their own separate line.
Note: pots of hardy garden mums sold during 2024, from USDA’s five-yearly Census of Horticultural Specialties. Florist mums have their own separate line and are not included. This counts pots only — not money and not single flowers. The state figures are census estimates. The United States bar is USDA’s own national figure. USDA NASS. USDA printed a garden-mum pot figure for 42 states. Seven more — Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. Nevada has no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to 188,300 pots. That is less than each of the top three printed figures, so New Jersey, Michigan and North Carolina hold national places. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
Garden mums: New Jersey. Florist mums: a different line, a different leader 🐾
USDA printed a garden-mum pot figure for 42 states. Seven more — Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. Nevada has no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to 188,300 pots. That is less than each of the top three printed figures, so New Jersey, Michigan and North Carolina hold national places. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2024 (Census of Horticultural Specialties))
Sources
Data as of: 2024 (Census of Horticultural Specialties)
USDA NASS Quick Stats: BEDDING PLANTS, HERBACEOUS PERENNIAL, CHRYSANTHEMUM, HARDY GARDEN, POTS - SALES, MEASURED IN POTS, 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties, by state↗ (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-01) — Published values only (the committed raw file holds the API response verbatim). USDA printed a figure for 42 states. Seven more — Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — carry the withheld mark (D), which USDA uses when printing a state’s number would give away information about individual growers. Nevada has no line in this table at all. Everything USDA did not print adds up to 188,300 pots — less than each of the top three printed figures, so New Jersey, Michigan and North Carolina hold national places. These are census estimates, not exact counts, so read close places as close. A withheld state is not the same as a state selling none. This site re-runs those checks on every build.
↳ In Quick Stats, pick CENSUS / Census of Horticultural Specialties, year 2024, commodity BEDDING PLANTS, HERBACEOUS PERENNIAL, short description BEDDING PLANTS, HERBACEOUS PERENNIAL, CHRYSANTHEMUM, HARDY GARDEN, POTS - SALES, MEASURED IN POTS, Total domain, and compare states. USDA’s questionnaire: https://data.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Census_of_Horticultural_Specialties/2024_Hort_Questionnaire_FINAL.pdf