PLANTprofile
Chrysanthemums
The “Golden” Flower By Kathy Jentz
I’ll confess I had a longtime aversion to chrysanthemums. Both their smell and commonness turned me off. But recently, I had a change of heart. I discovered a whole new world of mum-growing that goes far beyond those boring mums sold in cheap bunches at your local supermarkets. Chrysanthemums are an asset to any perennial garden. They provide quiet foliage all through the growing season and then set bloom right when most everything else is finished. From gold to pink to white and maroon, there is a color for every planting scheme. Don’t limit yourself to just the pompon cushion variety, either. A personal favorite of
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WASHINGTON GARDENER NOVEMBER 2018
mine is the ‘Sheffield Pink,’ which looks like a peach-colored daisy on tall stems. It is terrific for cutting and is especially nice planted next to Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. The flower is significant in many world cultures. The name “Chrysanthemum” is derived from the Greek, chrysos (gold) and anthos (flower). Chrysanthemums were first cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC. In many countries, it is associated with funerals and grief. In the United States, mums are generally seen as a cheerful bloom. The flowers have medicinal, culinary, and insecticidal properties—aside from their orna-
mental attributes. According to Gary Mangum, president of Bell Nursery, who supplies plants to Home Depot throughout the Mid-Atlantic, “Yellow is the most popular mum color for us.” Bell Nursery has taken the love of mums to the next level by breeding giant mums that are upward of 3 feet across! “We find that people get instant gratification by covering a lot of area and getting a lot of color with fewer plants,” said Mangum. “We have seen a huge growth in the popularity of the giant mums each year they are in the stores.” Home Depot expected to sell 30,000 of the giant mums in the region this year.
