There were 1,515 chrysanthemum blooms on just this plant alone that I came across when I visited Longwood Gardens for their Chrysanthemum Festival. There is a really interesting process to creating this plant, known as the Thousand Bloom Mum, which you can read about on their blog. Today we are going to take a tour together of the Festival, and I hope it makes you want to put it on your calendar to go and experience yourself next year in October and November.

 

They flood this exhibit hall floor with water to create a reflecting pool of the chrysanthemums and flowers around it. The centerpiece is made up entirely of chrysanthemums and is lowered every day to be watered.

This plant is cultivated to show all the varieties of chrysanthemums shown during the Festival. Each one is grafted onto a single chrysanthemum stock to create this one plant. Amazing!

There are thirteen different classes of chrysanthemums, and this one is the Anemone Chrysanthemum (Class 8). The flower is shaped by one or more layers of petals around a raised cushion-like button.

Here is another chrysanthemum cultivated into this dome-like shape and surrounded by the tall Irregular Incurve Chrysanthemum (Class 1).

This view across the Conservatory allows you to see how big the Thousand Bloom Mum is.

Longwood gardeners grow 65 percent of the chrysanthemums for the Festival and there are 80,000 pots exhibited. It is no doubt a huge undertaking to grow that many plants, and a real art to grooming them into these wonderful topiaries and grafted domes.

A beautiful view of one of the many hallways in the Conservatory.

P.S. More to come on the thirteen different classifications of chrysanthemums.

Share with me if you have been to this festival or if you have any particular botanical garden shows that you would recommend to go and see.

Flower at the top of the post: Chrysanthemum

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