It's chrysanthemum season here -- the grocery stores and garden stores are full of them. And I have never liked them, despite the lovely name. It's not that I have anything against yellow and orange and red -- I grew up in New England, and am very fond of those colors. But there, the colors of fall are brilliant leaves on the trees, a blazing glory. And mums -- mums always have seemed mostly brown to me. Dusty, dull.
Still, I'm trying to learn to appreciate them for what they are. Long-blooming, hugely floriferous. I admit, when I see a grocery store bouquet of mixed mums, it does nothing for me. But strip the bouquet to its component parts, let each little bundle of flowers stand alone, and I can start to see something worth growing.
