Happy birthday to November babies. Every one of us has a flower that represents our birth day and the birthday flower for November is the chrysanthemum.
Chrysanthemums, often referred to as merely “mums,” are the quintessential autumn flower. The name chrysanthemum is Greek in origin, a merging of the words chrysos, gold, and anthemon, that means flower. The Greek chrysos is a reminds us how far the mum breeders that the color of the first mums was yellow. Today there are mums of every color of the rainbow (except blue), in various shapes and sizes.
Chrysanthemums have been sorted into distinct classes by the National Chrysanthemum Society. Class designation is based upon bloom type. The inflorescence appears as a single flower with many petals, but it is composed of hundreds of small florets. Two kinds of florets are present in a single chrysanthemum bloom: disk florets and ray florets. Centers of the mum inflorescence is composed of smaller disk florets; the outer ‘petals’ are larger ray florets.
As plants senesce (age) color of the blooms slowly fade. The edges of the oldest, outer ray petals slowly turn brown; the center disk florets fade next, and eventually the entire bloom gradually fades, turns brown. Stems of the blooms thin and the inflorescence droops and falls off.
Any time after blooms begin to senesce, cut back spent flower stalks to about three inches in height. Mulch plants and next spring new shoots will form at the soil line.
These are some of the main chrysanthemum types: Incurve. Giant, globular blooms. Florets curve loosely inwards; centers appear fully enclosed.
Pompon. Mature blooms are globular; may be small button types or larger blooms up to 4 inches in diameter. Florets bend downwards in a regular manner with centers fully concealed. Grown as sprays.
Decorative. Flattened blooms, short petals; visible center disk florets. Upper florets are slightly incurved; lower petals generally reflex. Grown as a short pot mum.
Single. Daisy-like flowers with prominent center disk florets and one or more rows of ray florets. Grown for cut flowers or sprays.
Anemone. Prominent, raised, cushion-like center of disk florets surrounded by one or several rows of ray florets.
Spider. Long tubular ray florets, coiling or hooking at the ends. Florets may be very fine to coarse.
Chrysanthemum types from mum.org Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.
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