Part of the appeal of growing chrysanthemums, said Micah Black, is the story a batch of plants can tell at the end of the year.
“You make it yourself,” he said Sunday. “That’s just, kind of, the story you put together over the summer and toward the end of the season. How well can you keep the stem straight? How well can you water and fertilize, how did the weather go this year?”
This year, his flowers didn’t cooperate. Many growers blamed the long, hot summer for poor results. Chrysanthemums, or “mums” for short, like it a bit cooler.
That’s why he didn’t have anything to enter Vancouver Chrysanthemum Society’s 72nd annual flower show, he said, which was held over the weekend at Hudson’s Bay High School.
The Vancouver Chrysanthemum Society focuses on floral design and arrangements, along with the cultivation and growing of the flowers, but all with an eye towards education and getting better at the hobby, said Elizabeth Adamson, a club member.
She had dark red chrysanthemums for her bridesmaids, and that was it.
“That’s kind of how I was smitten with mums 150 years ago,” she joked.
There’s a lot to explore in pinching off the stem and picking off the buds to tease a flower into growing just so, she said.
Growers complained of poor conditions, but plenty still managed to bring plants and arrangements to admire.
Flowers on display grew from pots in cascades of green leaves and stems, with flares of color from the flowers.
Of the endless varieties and shape classifications out there, some can grow into blossoms the size of softballs, or with pedals that curve inward, outward or roll up into spoon shapes.
Black, at 19, is the youngest member of the club. Not everyone his age might be interested in growing flowers as a hobby (he prefers the growing part to the arranging), but it seemed like an interesting hobby.
It started, Black said, after talking to his horticulture teacher at Hudson’s Bay, Steve Lorenz, about the flowers. Black’s interest was piqued, and not too long after that he had entered flowers in a show, did well, then joined the mum club.
At one point, Black had 20 flowers going, on top of the other plants he grows, but downsized to six, he said.
The society was once an active men’s group, Adamson said, with around a hundred people, in the ’50s and ’60s, and it opened up to include women around the ’70s.
Membership has been dwindling, she said, so it’s exciting to see younger people like Black join up.
“That’s kind of what we do,” she said. “We met and try to teach and try to get new people inspired.”
The weekend show’s theme was “Make Mine Mums,” so all the plant arrangements had a cocktail theme, with a Jell-O Shot category for small arrangements and a Straight Up section for vertical designs.
Now the club, which meets weekly at the 78th Street Heritage Farm in Hazel Dell, will start clearing out its greenhouse space and preparing for its spring sale in May, she said.
The horticulture program, Lorenz said, teaches plant science but also career and technical-focused plant care.
Bay students in the program offer a full-service florist shop, and chrysanthemums are useful for his classes, he said. A grower can take a cutting in early spring and maintain it, even lightly, over the summer. By fall, they’re in bloom and ready for arranging and sale.
Lorenz’ grandfather, Gus, was in the club in the ’60s and ’70s. He keeps a newspaper clipping of his grandfather, smiling in a photo with his 1968 award at a national show.
Later, Steve Lorenz said, a member of the mums club called him and invited him to join.
“I was a kid, didn’t pay attention to what he was doing when he growing these things in the ’60s and ’70s,” he said. “And now I want to learn what he learned, and then I’m trying to pass that on to the students. Most of the mum growers are older, and trying to get the youth involved.”
His class connected with the chrysanthemum society a couple years ago, and the weekend was the second year where the students entered flowers for judging.
One student, Julia Carvalho, 17, won three first-place ribbons over the weekend. Last year, the students were invited to a national mum show.
“So far the kids have really responded well to doing the design side of it,” Lorenz said. “Being able to take these flowers, they’re perfect for high school horticulture programs.”
