Mum-Extravaganza! A Glorious Annual Chrysanthemum Festival
At Pennsylvania's Longwood Gardens, more than 80,000 mums are exhibited in a festival that celebrates and helps preserve the art of ancient Asian horticulture.
By:
Lynn Coulter
Hanging mum orbs
Globes of chrysanthemums float over vistitors' heads at Longwood Gardens. The festival shares the beauty of these popular flowers while it also carries on traditional forms of Asian art and horticulture.
Sculpted cascade anemone mums
The festival features mums grown as bonsai forms, 6-foot-tall specimens, hanging baskets and flowing curtains. Here, anemone mums have been trained into a cascade.
'Crimson Tide' mums
Classified as an irregular, incurved mum, Chrysanthemum x morifolium 'Crimson Tide' has huge blooms. The petals curve inward to close the centers of the flowers.
Longwood Gardens Orangery chrysanthemums
More than 80,000 mums fill Longwood's 4-acre conservatory during its colorful Chrysanthemum Festival. Giant mum baskets hang from the ceilings in the Orangery and Exhibition Hall.
'Tsuribito' mum
The bright centers of pink cascade anemone mums (Chrysanthemum morifolium 'Tsuribito') shine like gold coins.
Football mums at Longwood Gardens
These showy "football" mums are grown on individual stems. Each plant is groomed to bear one large, nearly perfect blossom on each stem.
Grafted Dome Chrysanthemum
Made from 100 cultivars, this Grafted Dome Chrysanthemum is created in much the same way as the Thousand Bloom design. Multiple flower stems are grafted onto one plant that serves as the base.
Chrysanthemum spirals
Grown in spiral forms, these yellow-gold mums line the Center Walk of the Longwood Gardens Orangery.
Cascading mums at Longwood Gardens
These cascade-style mums were hand pruned as they grew. Later, they were shaped onto customized metal forms to give the illusion of delicate, floating clouds.
Longwoods Garden spider mum
Spider mums take their common name from their long, narrow, drooping petals, which look like a spider's legs.
Chrysanthemum Festival Arch
Visitors can walk through this 13 foot tall arch of chrysanthemums at the festival. It was made by joining together 56 cascading mums.
Grafted Dome Chrysanthemum at Longwood Gardens
Made from 100 cultivars, this Grafted Dome Chrysanthemum features multiple flower stems grafted onto one plant that serves as the base.
Mum pagoda at Longwood Gardens
Grown in Chinese topiary style, these mums have one stem with large blooms placed informally. This form reflects the shape of traditional Asian pagoda roof lines.
