Flaunting my Ignorance Once Again.

When I was but a lad back in the Victorian era, one of my sisters had chrysanthemums that looked something like these at her wedding.  Our little town didn't have a florist shop so cut flowers either came from someone's garden or were ordered from the nearest florist shop 110 miles to the south.  There wasn't a road out of town back then so the flowers were flown in on small planes.   Anyway, I thought that these huge ball shaped flowers were just about the most exotic thing that a plant could produce.  (I was young, give me a break.)  For some reason, I got it in my head that these big round things with incurved petals were called football mums.  They always bring an inner smile.

 

Mums are categorized by arrangement of petals,  size etc. If you're interested in knowing the real categories, go here.  For more interesting facts, go here.  For more pictures, a little fun,  and no real information, stay right where you are.  

 When I moved from Alaska to Washington, I thought that meant that I could grow these outside.   Usually one only sees garden mums offered at nurseries for growing outside or the daisy or double looking things (highly technical horticultural terms) in pots at grocery stores/ florists. 

 

These are all exhibition mums grown with care and a bunch of bud pinching in pots.  Who knew?  There is a whole group of gardeners who specialize in growing these lovely flowers.   These all popped up of fall in the Seymour Conservatory which we visited on a cold and rainy Sunday.  The conservatory is always an oasis of green life even on days with the yuckiest weather!

 

I'd never seen mums like these before and decided they should be classified as perm mums because of their lovely curls.

 

 This is from the "confused" classification.

The folks at the conservatory mixed the mums with ornamental peppers, an interesting combination.

Isn't this one cool?  Also in the confused classification for more reasons than one!

I think these are in the "spider" category (really.)

Obviously from the "Chinese painting" classification.  I sort of love the color, petal arrangement, and well, everything about these.

And from the "shaggy dog" classification come these.

More with  curly hair.

I inquired and found that I could maybe buy one of these mums but couldn't decide which I liked best.  Anyway, who has space for another plant obsession?  Would I be sadistic enough to do all of this hard pinching business?

They almost don't look real on their oh so straight stems; they've been tied to bamboo stakes so that the weight of the flower doesn't topple the whole plant over.

There were names on some of these but I was too lazy to photograph them and too dumb to remember so let's just make up  names of our own, shall we? 

"Summer blonde fireworks"



"Bride's head exploding"

"Honey, your roots are showing"

There were so many other cool things at the conservatory that I'll do a second post but I was delighted to see these cool chrysanthemums on display all over the place. 

 May your weekend be full of the warmth of these lovelies but lack their drama.