Chrysanthemum Festival Part 3

The West Hall leads from the Main Conservatory to the Orchid House and other

greenhouses.  It was hung with orange Chinese paper lanterns, and Cinnamon Wattle,

a variety of acacia, hung from the ceiling, and fourteen pots of 7 spider mums each

lined the sides.

These are Kishinonishi Yellow Spider Mums.  They are about 9 inches in diameter.

Kishinonishi Yellow Spider Mums

There are hundreds of varieties of mums, and Longwood has tried to organize them into

manageable groups.  So they have designated thirteen major categories, and there was an urn

devoted to each of the varieties in the West Hall.  These are "George Couchman Irregular

Incurve Mums."  The colors are pure autumn.

"George Couchman Mum" - about eight inches across.

Another variety of mums is the thistle mum, small and with may petals.  This is

"Cisco Thistle Mum," a beautiful bright yellow.

Small Cisco Thistle Mums

This gorgeous beauty is "King's Delight Quill Mum" and it is about 10 inches in diameter.

It was a beautiful pale pink in color.

"King's Delight Quill Mums"

"Snowflake Anemone Mums" were small and prolific.

Snowflake Anemone Chrysanthemums

"Two-Toned Pink Single Chrysanthemums" were about 2 inches across.

A vase filled with "Two-Toned Pink Single Mums."

This is one of my favorite colors - "Indian Summer Show Mum."

"Indian Summer Show Mum"

"Indian Summer Show Mum."  Wouldn't you like to have a garden with a dozen bushes

like this?

These are huge "Apricot Alexis Chrysanthemums."  They have a wonderful, rich

apricot color and are about 8 inches in diameter.

"Apricot Alexis Chrysanthemum"

This is one of teh few varieties which I have seen here in the past; almost every flower

this year was different from what I have seen in the past.  This "Bill Holden Mum" - a beautiful

soft pink with slightly drooping petals.

A pot of pink "Bill Holden Mums."

"Bill Holden Mum"

These large football mums are "Nijin Bigo," in deep red and copper.

"Nijin Bigo Chrysanthemum" - about 8 inches in diameter.

This was a brand new variety they had for the first time - "Mocha."

Longwood has always had a collection of bonsai trees, some of them nearly 100 years old,

but they have now begun a project to develop a whole series of chrysanthemum bonsais.

The tree above is about 12 inches high; the flowers are quite small; and it is two years old.

They will now try to train these bonsai in unusual shapes and smaller.

A deep orange anemon bonsai mum.

A white chrysanthemum bonsai.

"Kelvin Tattoo Pompom Mum."  These are small and very prolific.

"Icicle White" crinkly spider mums.

"Icicle Mum"

"Exotic White Edo 28 Mum."  Edo Mums are irregularly shaped flowers, often with twisted

petals.  Breeders are not sure they will perpetuate themselves like this and so they have not 

been given specific names yet.

"Edo 28 Exotic White Mum"

"Orange Sherbet" mum

Red Pelee Mums.  Mums will only bloom if there is less than 12 hours of daylight
each day.  So, to get longer stems, you plant the cuttings early in the summer and they will
grow tall before setting buds.  If you want the stems very short, as on these flowers, you
don't plant the cuttings until after Sept. 1.

This is the Hibiscus Greenhouse, where a number of special Chinese Hibiscus flowers

are grown.  Along this side was a series of Chinese lanterns and yellow Marguerite daisies.

The lanterns were lighted at night for special showings.

Red and Yellow Chinese Paper Lanterns decorated the ceiling of the Hibiscus House.

"Candy Striper: Chinese Hibiscus

"Fifth Dimension" Chinese Hibiscus

"The Pearl" Chinese Hibiscus was an iridescent pearl white and 12 inches across,

a dinner-plate mum.

"Erin Rachel" was a lovely Chinese Hibiscus in orange, pink, and magenta.

Chrysanthemum Festival I

The Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia is the largest

display of mums outside Japan.  These are all show mums, grown for artistic and aesthetic

purposes, not for your ordinary garden.  They are all in greenhouses, and this is the

largest of the conservatories.  There were 17,000 mums on display here last week.

This is inside the front doors - blankets and a ball of yellow mums, large beds of white

Shasta mums, yellow Edo mums, and two 500 Flower Domes of lavender mums.  Each

of these domes is only a single chrysanthemum plant.

This is looking in the opposite direction toward the Orangery, with Yellow Balls of Mums

and red curtains of mums.

Looking to the East, you can see White Mum  Balls and topiary trees of Gumdrop Mums.

All of these blossoms of Kokka Hougiku are on a single mum plant

supported on these iron armature.  It takes a year of training to achieve this.

Close-up of Kokka Hougiku blossoms on one plant.

Another single Kokka Hougiku crysanthemum trained to display 500 flowers.

These huge crowns are on White Shasta Mums, where all side flowers have been

pinched off so all the energy goes to the top, single flower.  They are 9 inches across.

The beautiful head of a single White Shasta Chrysanthemum, one flower per stem.

In the background is a bush of "Butter Creme Senna."  In front are the

White Shasta Chrysanthemums.

This is a totally new variety of mum known so far only as "Edo 16."  These new varieties

are noted for their irregularity and twisted petals.

Another example of "Edo 16";  every flower is different.

A blanket of yellow mums wrapped around a column.

This White Ball of Mums is about four feet in diameter, is made of an iron armature

with several mum plants growing inside.  A number of these hang from the ceiling and are

lowered on pulleys each day to be watered.

The Easter Half of the Main Conservatory.  An aisle goes all around with beds of mums

on both sides.  We will walk there next.

The Northeast Aisle is lined with white "Icey Isle" mums on one side with topiary trees of

"Gumdrop Chrysanthemums."  That is a single mum plant, trained to be a tree, and then

pruned so that it fills out only on top.

"Icey Isle" white chrysanthemums.  They were snow white and prolific.

"Icey Isle" white chrysanthemums.

Northeast Aisle with "Icey Isle" white mums, yellow "Marguerite Daisies," and

topiary trees of "Gumdrop" anemone mums.

A topiary tree of "Gumdrop Anemone Chrysanthemums."  That is a single mum plant,

trained to bloom only on top; all other buds and leaves were pinched off.

Down below, on both sides, were "Crimson Tide" chrysanthemums - the big,

beautiful "football" mums.

"Crimson Tide" irregular in-curve chrysanthemums.  Notice how all the

petals curve to the inside, but irregularly.

"Crimson Tide Chrysanthemum"

Looking back to the center and the Orangery to the North from the East Aisle.

Notice the Red Blanket Mums, Yellow Ball Mums, and Gumdrop Topiary Mums.

"Icey Isle" white mums.

Along the East Aisle was this magnificent single mum plant topiary of red "Kurume" mums.

They are not growing from that tree, but thin stems of the chrysanthemum plant can be seen

along the trunk and tied to it.  This is a single red plant, pinched and pruned so that it

only shows flowers at certain points.  This takes a year of training and preparation.

"Candid" chrysanthemums along the aisle were a rich cocoa color.

When the sun streamed in, the cocoa color seemed browner.

"Candid" Chrysanthemum head.

The East Aisle with a variety of chrysanthemums blooming.

Baskets of "Tradescantia" hanging and "Sir Galahad" Mums below.  The Festival runs

from Oct. 22 to Nov. 24, and as flowers begin to droop, they are replaced overnight with

totally new plants just coming into full bloom.   I saw wholly new varieties of mums

appear each day.

Along the East Aisle, the "Zaryah Spider Mums" were some of the most special.

This is a single "Zaryah Spider Mum," about 12 inches across.  Only one flower is allowed

to grow on each plant, and all the other buds are pinched off so all the energy goes into

the only spectacular flower on each plant.

The bed of "Sir Galahad" mums was one of those to appear on my second day,

as if from nowhere, but actually from one of the 60 working greenhouses in back.

"Zaryah Spider Chrysanthemum"

"Sir Galahad Chrysanthemums"

A bed of "Zaryah Spider Mums."

"Statesman" bright yellow anemone mums filled the beds.

"Yellow Megumi Chrysanthemum" topiary trees; each is a single plant.

"Yellow Megumi Topiary Trees" - a single plant

"Powder Puff Chrysanthemums" - theya re about four inches in diameter.
These plants produce many blossoms on each plant.

"Powder Puff Chrysanthemums."


___