At the beginning of November, Smithies and the Northampton community flooded into the Botanic Garden of Smith College to see the highly anticipated Fall Chrysanthemum Show. Nicknamed “the mum show,” this visually stunning display of bonsai, chrysanthemum cascades, oversized standard blooms and diverse variety of mums has a rich history that stretches across the globe. For a show with a little bit for everyone, its popularity is rightly deserved.
For the past eleven months, students and the Botanic Garden staff have been growing, curating, and waiting for the mums to bloom. Daniel Babineau, the tropical greenhouse technician, took a lead role in designing the show.
Babineau trained the dozen bonsai plants, trained the flowers to grow/flow down a sloped netted platform (called a cascade) and brought the miniature Edo mums, a special variety of the flower recently introduced in the US, to public gardens from Japan. “The petals spiral inward into a ball which is quite bizarre,” he said.
All the chrysanthemum “flowers” are, in fact, composed of multiple “florets,” or smaller petals. In the case of mums, their flower heads are clusters of centralized smaller “disk florets” surrounded by the longer “ray florets.” But between each type of mum, the florets have various traits. These differences give the specialized flower its distinct appearance.
There is a wide range of colors, heights, petal shapes and forms within the two glass rooms that illuminate the flowers. From the “Reflexed” mum’s droopy downward curving ray petals, to the puffy looking “Pompon” mum, to the lanky ray petals of the “spider” mum, to the sharp slender “quill” mum, the differences between each chrysanthemum is articulated effectively. Further, it is beautifully contrasted to the shared traits previously discussed.
In addition to learning about the structure of the plant, the show provides attendees with information of the mum’s past.
“The space is so light and beautiful,” Gaia Santorro Lecchini ’23 said at the exhibit on Nov. 2. “I had no idea the chrysanthemums had so much history.”
From China, to Japan, to Europe and finally to public gardens in America, the show highlights the chrysanthemum’s history with selective breeding to explain how scientists over the decades create hybrids with intentionally distinct colors and shapes particular to each plant. Many Japanese cities, and now Smith, still celebrate “hybridized” chrysanthemums as an alive artistry.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Smithies have learned about and produced hybrids of these flowers. Now at the mum show, there is a competition amongst the students of professor Gaby Immerman’s “Horticulture: Plants in the Landscape Laboratory” 2018 fall class for breeding the best mum hybrid.
Visitors of the show are encouraged to vote on their favorite mums, which have been growing since March. This year’s horticulture students will continue the tradition and learn how to pollinate the plants showcased currently. Their hybrids will be exhibited and in competition for the 2020 show.
“Last year’s winner I ended up liking so much I grew it again for this years show,” Dan Babineau added when discussing his favorite plants of this year’s competition. “I haven’t voted for my favorite hybrid yet this year, but I have my eye on a few!”
The amount of care, effort and love of mums in this display is wonderfully evident. From the patience it took to grow, to the history of the chrysanthemum, all parts of this fall flower show were cherished by the Smith community and the anticipation for next year’s mums has already sprouted.
