When you walk into MacFarlane Pumpkin Patch, you see big pots of mums. Those are not for sale, but rather are flowers the family has cultivated for years. They have bloomed multiple times and continue to come back year after year.

Keeping mums healthy and continually blooming is not that hard, Marilyn Macfarlane said.

Marilyn Macfarlane is married to Drew Macfarlane, whose family has owned the farm for 50 years. The best way to keep your mums blooming year after year is to plant them in the ground. But that is not the only way. You can also winter mums in pots if you care for them in the proper way.

The key is to allow the plant to go dormant over the winter. While the plants can be left outside once the weather changes, you have to mound the pot with leaves or garden refuse.

According to gardeningknowhow.com, the plan to winter a potted mum starts when you plant it in the pot.

"Make sure that you plant your mums in well draining soil," the site states. "In many cases, it is not the cold that kills mums, but rather the ice that forms around the mums roots if they are planted in soil that collects water."

Once the cold has arrived, in addition to insulating the plant with mulch or garden refuse, you have to cut back the mums while leaving some stems. Leaving the stem will make sure that the plant will return the next year.