Mums provide one of the only blasts of color for the year-end garden. They're easy to cultivate, so growers' costs are low. And new varieties extend the bloom season from a few weeks in late August or early September all the way to Halloween, giving consumers many more choices.
Despite their popularity with the masses, for some people in the plant world, autumn's cookie-cutter mums are an unfortunate distraction in an otherwise exciting garden season.
"I hate mums . . . with a passion," writes James K. Roush, a master gardener and veterinary orthopedic surgeon in Manhattan, Kan., in his blog, "Garden Musings" (http://www.kansasgardenmusings.com/).
While conceding that mums - short for chrysanthemums - offer nice fall color, Roush says the leaves and flowers are boring, "and the rest of the year, they're either just a slowly growing blob that sits there like a green turd in your landscape, or they're dead stems that break with the first snowfall."
One more insult, by e-mail: "Most of the mum blooms smell bad, like a weak marigold, or have no scent."
Even Secret Garden's owner, John Lynch, who sold Butler three large, healthy-looking, yellow and maroon mums for $15, is no fan. "I hate mums," he grumbles.
"They're like poinsettias. They've gotten so common, but people are brainwashed. They want them. You have to sell them," says Lynch, who tries without success to convince customers that fall is an excellent time to plant perennials, shrubs, and trees.
First cultivated in China as far back as the 15th century B.C.E., the chrysanthemum appeared in Japan around the eighth century, where it was adopted as the emperor's official seal. Chrysanthemums were introduced to Europe in the late 17th century and to the United States in the late 19th.
