Today is National Chrysanthemum Day and we want to celebrate one of the most famous
and beautiful flowers in the world. Above is a Gold Spider Chrysanthemum.
Chrysanthemums were first cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th
century BC. The plant is renowned as one of the "Four Gentlemen" in Chinese and East
Asian art. The chrysanthemum, with its burnished colors, is a symbol of autumn. Since
it flourishes at the end of the year, it denotes longevity and duration.
Petals on the chrysanthemum have been bred to curve inward or outward or straight,
thick or thin, and in every color. This is an Irregular Inward Curving Lavender
and Purple Chrysanthemum.
This is the Hook-eyed Pink Princess Chrysanthemum.
The chrysanthemum has inspired many musicians in a variety of styles.
Here is Scott Joplin's "Chrysanthemum Rag."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7lEPOknjYg
This is a Regular Inward Curving Golden Globe Chrysanthemum;
it is about eight inches in diameter.
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The rose is called the queen of flowers,
Surrounded by her sisters fair,
A lovely throng of beauties rare,
She holds her court 'mid summer bowers,
'Neath smiling skies of sunny blue,
Gayly they bloom the summer through
Brightening all the golden hours.
But when the autumn days have come
Then blooms our sweet Chrysanthemum.
Ah! she is not a "Summer Friend,"
She stays when all the rest have flown,
And left us flowerless and alone;
No singing birds, or blooms to lend
Their brightness to the autumn haze,
'Tis she who cheers the dreary days;
'Tis joy to know so sweet a friend;
No fairer flower blooms 'neath the sun
Than autumn's queen, Chrysanthemum.
Hattie L. Knapp
This is the Golden Glow Outward Curving Giant Chrysanthemum.
Chrysanthemums adapt to all kinds of pruning and training. They can be individual
flowers, or bushes, or trees, or a carpet covering a wall.
This is a Red Chrysanthemum tree, just one plant and one stem.
Chrysanthemum bushes completely covered with brilliant flowers, like these
October Orange blossoms, are very popular.
This is a very pale Irish Mist Spider Chrysanthemum.
This exotic creature is an Irregular Burnt Orange Spider Chrysanthemum.
"My Lady's Posies" are a new bi-color bush chrysanthemum.
My White Chrysanthemum
by Susan Coolidge
My White Chrysanthemum
As purely white as is the drifted snow,
More dazzling fair than summer roses are,
Petalled with rays like a clear rounded star,
When winds pipe chilly, and red sunsets glow,
Your blossoms blow.
Sweet with a freshening fragrance, all their own,
In which a faint, dim breath of bitter lies,
Like wholesome breath mid honeyed flatteries;
When other blooms are dead, and birds have flown,
You stand alone.
Fronting the winter with a fearless grace,
Flavoring the odorless gray autumn chill,
Nipped by the furtive frosts, but cheery still,
Lifting to heaven from the bare garden place
A smiling face.
Roses are fair, but frail, and soon grow faint,
Nor can endure a hardness; violets blue,
Short-lived and sweet, live but a day or two;
The nun-like lily bows without complaint,
And dies a saint.
Each following each they hasten them away,
And leave us to our winter and our rue,
Sad and uncomforted; you, only you,
Dear, hardy lover, keep your faith and stay
Long as you may.
And so we choose you out from all the rest,
For that most noble word of "Loyalty,"
Which blazoned on your petals seems to be;
Winter is near,--stay with us; be our guest,
The last and best.
Yellow Rain Chrysanthemum with long thin tubular petals.
Powder Puff Pink Chrysanthemums
"Fiery Burst" thick-petaled chrysanthemum
Red and Yellow Inward Curving Football Pompom Chrysanthemum
"Chrysanthemum Galopp" or "Cachuca" by Johann Strauss Sr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FbNw4cmFAY
Pink Pom-Pom Mums, small and dense.
Lemon Colored Daisy Mums
Copper colored exotic mums
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"The Last Chrysanthemum" by Thomas Hardy
Why should this flower delay so long
To show its tremulous plumes?
Now is the time of plaintive robin-song,
When flowers are in their tombs.
Through the slow summer, when the sun
Called to each frond and whorl
That all he could for flowers was being done,
Why did it not uncurl?
It must have felt that fervid call
Although it took no heed,
Waking but now, when leaves like corpses fall,
And saps all retrocede.
Too late its beauty, lonely thing,
The season's shine is spent,
Nothing remains for it but shivering
In tempests turbulent.
Had it a reason for delay,
Dreaming in witlessness
That for a bloom so delicately gay
Winter would stay its stress?
- I talk as if the thing were born
With sense to work its mind;
Yet it is but one mask of many worn
By the Great Face behind.
A pot of Golden Splendor yellow mums.
Mums can be trained and pruned to grow in almost any shape.
These "Blanket Mums" are draped over an iron armature
and cover it completely.
Or you can train mums to grow in a ball or in a spiral.
A pot of yellow mums
Yellow Starfire Mums
These beautiful Mound Chrysanthemums are growing in the garden of the home of
Marjorie Meriweather Post in Washington, D.C.
Giacomo Puccini wrote mostly operas, but in chamber music, his most beautiful
work is the string quartet entitled "Chrysanthemums / Crisantemi" from 1890.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2TIFSvYFjs
This is one chrysanthemum plant, with one stem, and it has been trained to
produce 500 flowers which are supported on a steel framework.
Copper colored Anemone Mums
Pink Anemone Mums
Single White Decorative Mum
Pink and Yellow anemone mums.
"The Chrysanthemum" played by Scott Joplin himself on a piano roll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsgJd0YikEg
Yellow Anemone Mums
Large "White Icicles" exotic mum.
Hot pink exotic mum.
Lavender Globe Mums, about 8 inches in diameter.
A single white mum plant with 500 flowers on steel frame.
Franz Josef Haydn "Chrysanthemum Concerto No. 11"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmMucPqW9w
Honey Glow Exotic Mums
A trio of Janet Baker Spider Mums
"Queen Emma" spider mum, 12 inches in diameter
"Lava Glow" Spider Mum
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Lo! in the corner yonder
There is a gleam of white and gold.
The gold of summer's sunshine,
The white of winter's cold.
And laden with spicy odours,
The autumn breezes come.
From nooks and corners, brightened
By the brave chrysanthemum.
"Red Wing" spoon mums - notice how each petal has a white "handle" and red "spoon."
Bouquet of Pelee Mums
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These are just a few of the mums I have enjoyed in the last few Novembers.
I hope you have the good fortune to enjoy these wonderfully diverse flowers also.
JB
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