I put a question mark next to the name in the title because I'm not totally sure these are still called chrysanthemums. It looks like the botanical nomenclature for them may have changed to dendranthema...and possibly changed back again. I've always just called them mums and I had never even heard of 'dendranthema' until I started today's post.*
I'm a huge fan of mums. I enjoy seeing them this time of year and something about them just screams "Fall is here" to me, even more than pansies, decorative cabbages, or even pumpkins. My wedding anniversary is on November 1st, so I've adopted white chrysanthemums as our official flower. It works out quite well - they're cheap, plentiful, and not carnations.
I'm not crazy about the colors of the mums we have...I would have chosen white, cream, or maroon. We have three total (all orange-yellow) and two of them are poking up in the weirdest places: under an evergreen shrub and halfway in-between a bed and a lawn. I'm not sure if they were quickly put in the ground one year or if the garden beds look drastically different from when they were originally planted. They'll probably end up being moved next spring.
Lately, I've been reading about asters as a sort of mum-substitute. Like mums, they provide late-season blooms, but are hardier, are native plants, and don't require extra pruning. Have you ever grown asters? Do you prefer them to mums?
*I take it back - it looks like Carol at May Dreams Gardens wrote about this, so I must have heard of dendranthema before. However, since her post is over 5(!) years ago, I guess it slipped my mind.
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