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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Friday, November 22, 2013

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. 


29 comments:

  1. We never did get into them but boy when it comes to colour and showiness they are up there!

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    1. They are interesting to look at but I wouldn't have the patience to grow them.

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  2. Thanks for taking us back to your boyhood in Alaska, and your introduction to mums at your sister's wedding. I love the names you made up, thanks for giving me a morning laugh. I once had hair like that pink permed one, back in my early 20s. Except mine wasn't pink. You don't need another plant-type obsession, Fuchsias are enough, right? Not to mention all the other plants. All that pinching is too much work for me.

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    1. I agree about the pinching and staking being a little more than I'd be willing to do but it's sure fun to see them at the conservatory.

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  3. Fun post. Yes, football mums, because the homecoming court wore them as corsages at the football game. At least that's how I remember them.

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    1. That's what I'd heard but they seem so huge to actually wear.

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  4. Yes, football mums for those homecoming games. Takes me back a bit too. Good choice for a wedding in remote Alaska since the mums would have stood up nicely to all that transport.

    Since all I see now are the fake versions I enjoyed seeing that they are still grown and admired. Beautiful variety and I loved your names for them.

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    1. I don't see these big ones offered very often in places where I see flowers sold. Sometimes I hear about mum groups meeting or having plant sales. Maybe one year...

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  5. You crack me up. Or as they say these days: LOL!
    "Honey, your roots are showing" made me snort my coffee. Is it possible to be obsessed with plants without buying them? I'm constantly working towards that goal.

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    1. You know, I think obssession with a plant without having to own it would be perfect. That's where mums are for me, admiration without ownership. Glad you liked my names for them.

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  6. I think "Summer blonde fireworks" is my fav, but "Bride's head exploding" is pretty great too. Thanks for a fun look at flowers I tend to dismiss.

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    1. I wouldn't have thought of them either but we headed to the conservatory and there they were in such number as to make them impossible to ignore.

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  7. Let me set you straight: 'football mums' grow pipe cleaner-like initials in contrasting colors. In my experience they were yellow with a green WL in the center.
    I think you should be put in charge of all naming from here on out.

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    1. Oh Ricki, thanks so much for clearing that up. I knew that there was something special about football mums and will look for the initials next time.

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  8. Your classifications make more sense to me than the official ones - maybe the taxonomists need to update their terminology to make it more relevant to current day experience! (You could get a consulting gig.) I particularly like the perm mum - I can't say I've ever seen one like that.

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    1. The perm mums were new to me too. Had lots of fun enjoying all the flower forms represented and coming up with names for them.

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  9. It's always amazing to me to see what truly dedicated gardeners can accomplish...I'd never have the patience!

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    1. I'm with you on that Scott, but I think that some of the mums can be grown without the pinching and still produce interesting flowers. There must be a reason why nurseries don't carry them.

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  10. You've captured their beauty. I was surprised a coupled of years ago to catch the Chrysanthemums at the Volunteer Park Conservatory. We used to grow the spidery ones growing up but I love the big balls.

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  11. of course I like the summer blonde one :)
    I have mums but not too many. I've read you should prune by a third, once a month until july 1st so they will bloom in the fall. usually I just prune them back hard--one time- around the mid to end of june and they do fine. Those football mums are huge!

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    1. I've admired some of your gorgeous mums on your blog! These "exhibition mums" are only allowed to grow two or tree stems per plant. Side growth is pinched off and it looks as if they're fertilized heavily. When buds start to appear, only one per stem is allowed to remain so that all of the energy of the plant can go to producing just two or three HUGE flowers. The results are lovely but too labor intensive for me.

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  12. Last Mid-Century it wasn't just the Homecoming Court who wore Football Mum corsages. Any girl with a caring boyfriend dressed up for Homecoming and wore a Football Mum corsage with pipe-cleaner initials for the team. Our team colors were black and gold, so we wore yellow mums. If we went to the annual Rival Game with a young man from the next town, it was a white mum with a red 'C' and so on. Times and customs have changed in fifty years. Wonder what happened to 'spoon' mums?

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    1. Now that I think about it, we didn't wear pipe cleaner letters in the 50s. We had tasteful ribbon bows in the team colors. Florists started adding colored pipe cleaners in the 70s and now anything goes.

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    2. Having grown up in a town too small geographically to have a football field, I know nothing about the game but had read about football mum corsages and wondered about such a huge flower being worn. Spoon is still category of mum on the website.

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  13. Ohmigosh I'm laughing out loud over the names you've given the mums, so appropriate, each and every one!

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  14. When I was a teenage lassie in the Victorian era, the popular girls wore "football mums" just like your first white one, with ribbons to match the school colors, I can't remember now but there might have been some little letters or numbers decorating the flower. I never had one, just being a nerd in high school. In Vancouver, there is a Chrysanthemum society that meets regularly and sells many varieties of mums from all classifications in small pots, at the annual Mother's Day Master Gardener Sale. I have a little pink mum that lives in a basket, and I have found that mums are one of the few flowers I have tried that can root successfully in water from a cutting, so it is not that hard to keep them going indoors then plant them out again the next year. I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful spider and curled mums, maybe I should try one next year.

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    1. They are beautiful. O.K. if you try one, I'll try one too and we can compare notes next fall when they bloom!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.