Mums are queen of the fall garden

Among the favorite flowers in fall gardens are chrysanthemums. Across the country and around the world, these fall-blooming flowers decorate large and small gardens.

Chrysanthemums, or mums as they are commonly known, originated in China and were originally used as herbs. According to legend, the boiled roots were used as a headache remedy, the young sprouts and petals were eaten in salads and leaves were brewed for a festive drink.

Around the eighth century A.D., chrysanthemums appeared in Japan. The Japanese were so taken with the flower that they adopted a single-flowered chrysanthemum as the emperor's crest and official seal. In Japan, the Imperial Order of the Chrysanthemum is the highest Order of Chivalry. Japan also celebrates National Chrysanthemum Day, called the Festival of Happiness.

The chrysanthemum made its way to the Western world during the 17th century. In 1753, Karl Linnaeus, the renowned Swedish botanist, coined the name by combining the Greek words "chrysos" — meaning gold — with "anthemon" — meaning flower. All mums belong to the Compositae or daisy family.

Since the chrysanthemum was first introduced into the United States during colonial times, its popularity now makes it the undisputed "Queen of the Fall Flowers." In the United States, chrysanthemums are the most important commercially produced flower due to their ease of cultivation, the ability to bloom on schedule, diversity of bloom forms and colors, and the fact that the blooms last well.

While the earliest illustrations of mums show them as small, yellow, daisy-like flowers, ancient growers would not recognize modern mums. Although some mums still resemble daisies, others are more showy. Hybridizers have developed flowers with a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes. Colors include shades of pink, purple, red, yellow, bronze or orange and white.

I frequently get questions on how to grow mums in local gardens. While they are not hard to grow, beautiful fall gardens require that you follow a few basic guidelines. The following are some of the most common questions that local gardeners frequently ask me about their mums.

Question: Why do my mums flower so early and look so bad?

Answer: The reasons these flowers show their best beauty in the fall is that all chrysanthemums are short-day (meaning long-night) plants. They require long periods of uninterrupted darkness for the flower buds to develop.