{"id":6514,"date":"2012-10-23T02:25:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-13T18:09:15","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T22:09:15","slug":"fancy-mums-making-comeback-after-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardern.co.za\/2012\/10\/fancy-mums-making-comeback-after-2000\/","title":{"rendered":"Fancy Mums – Making A Comeback after 2000 Year Hiatus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MY EXHIBITION MUMS ARE BEGINNING TO BLOOM. IN ANOTHER MONTH, THEY WILL PEAK. Clockwise from top: Myss Goldie, John Lowry, Heather James, Indian Summer, and Fort Smith.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
We are just starting the season for Chrysanthemum shows, and although you may poo poo those dense, potted meaningless mums growing in fiber pots and bushel baskets at the farm stand or associate mums as funeral flowers or cheap, filler flowers best left for supermarket purchases, think again – the mum is making a comeback, and it’s starting at your local botanical garden. The chrysanthemum has a long, long, long – even ancient history with human culture – they have been cultivated and careful displayed with perfection for more than 2000 years. They are the lost art pieces, or objet d’art and have captivated humans, helping them celebrate the seasonal shift into autumn since, well, since before Christ. Even though I think the mum needs to be rediscovered by more people, I agree that they also need a makeover – a good agent and perhaps a major re branding.<\/p>\n
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THE PALETTE OF AUTUMN IS SURPRISINGLY FLEXIBLE. AND EVEN THOUGH ONE MIGHT BELIEVE THAT BRONZE, PINK, FLESH TONES AND COPPER COULD NEVER WORK WELL TOGETHER, I SAY THAT THEY BLEND PERFECTLY.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
If you are looking into growing chrysanthemums, they are not that easy to find. These exhibition types must be grown from cuttings, and there are only a couple of sources on-line. I get mine from Kings Mums, but there are other places which will require some in depth Google searching to find. These are not the same mums as those found at potted plants, or at farm stands, for these are not completely hardy ( not that most farm stand mums are hardy either, even though they are sold as ‘hardy mums’. Here in New England, few mums are truly hardy through a hard winter. Exhibition mums are easy to grow, and even to winter over, they just need to be lifted in the late autumn, and protected a bit more – placed in a box in a cool shed, or cellar. These ‘stools’ are often stored under benches in a cool greenhouse in my case, and they send out new growth in the spring, which make good cutting material. That said, it is easier to by new rooted cuttings in the spring from on-line retailers since they only cost a couple of dollars per cutting. This is by far the best way to grow these sort of mums.<\/p>\n
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A FORMAL REFLEX ‘JOHN LOWRY BEGINNING TO OPEN<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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\nHumans have been cultivating the Chrysanthemum since 15th Century B.C. Hello? I said B.C. “Are you kidding me? Asian orchids and mums are some of the first ornamental plants grown by mankind. They are THAT old. Mums are our Yoda of modern horticulture. In China they reigned as one of if not the first plant man ever cultivated for royalty- heck, they didn’t even make it to Japan until the 8th Century A.D. The Chrysanthemum predates modern religion , heck, it predates ancient religion!<\/div>\n
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\nThese are living relics, Now treated more like special art installations than seasonal plants with provenance. They have become the Chihuly of flower display that botanic gardens use to draw in viewers, along with model trains, fairie gardens, griftshops full of silk sunflowers and amaryllis bulbs, and home made soap. Crowds don’t come for the mums – they come for the ‘wow’ factor. The amazing symmetry, the Asian theme which surrounds them ( the tea houses, the Japanese maple displays, the bonsai all add the the experience). <\/div>\n
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\nI’m OK with that, for how else might we educate the viewing audience to appreciate these kings of the mum world. After all, who else could ever grow them? The days of huge private estates with housewives home directing the gardening staff to manage the floral displays properly are gone. Gone the seasonal cycles on large, private estates – you know, like those seen in feature films such as Sabrina, Downton Abby, and the Vanderbilt’s. Mum’s grown properly require daily care from spring until autumn, and then the must be set into displays. These are display crops from another era, and unless you are Martha Stewart sipping organic greens and carrot juice on you private farm\/estate in Bedford, NY, who else could grow them privately, or who else would honestly even care to?<\/div>\n
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‘FORT SMITH’, A LARGE GOLDEN YELLO SHOW FLOWER JUST BEGINNING TO OPEN IN THE GREENHOUSE.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nWith mums, it’s really about respect. Toss a bunch in a funeral display, and they seem dull. Tie a bunch together in a celophane tie, and they look even cheaper. But carefully disbud and raise a single blossom, and then set it on a stage, and it becomes something else. It’s all about respect, and no one know respect better than the Japanese. Gesture, pose, positioning, color – isolation and control transforms an ordinary object into art. <\/div>\n