I ordered these in early July and planted them as soon as I received them, into the ground in a south-facing garden bed. They took well to the soil and the foliage grew at an average pace. Then the buds began to form, I'd say around Sept-Oct. Every day I'd go outside expecting to see open blooms. I never saw them open, but any day I kept thinking. Then one day I actually inspected them up close. We have wild rabbits that have eaten away at so many of my plantings, and sure enough, I saw that many of my mum stems (including the newly forming buds) had clearly been chopped away by rabbits. I immediately potted all of the mums I'd planted, and now, about 1-2 weeks later, the Bristol white mums have filled out quite nicely with plenty of open blooms. These are beautiful and I will likely buy more next year!