Garden Muses: A Small Toronto Gardening Services Company Blog: The Allan Gardens Conservatory 2014 Fall Chrysanthemum Show

22.10.14

The Allan Gardens Conservatory 2014 Fall Chrysanthemum Show

I swear on me (fall) mum, it's a fantastic show!

Each fall, the Allan Gardens Conservatory puts on its Chrysanthemum Flower Show to the delight of visitors, local and tourists. I recently dropped by to see what the floral artists envisioned and executed for this year's show. I have mixed feelings about "mums" as common folk like me call non-hardy florist chrysanthemums on sale now at big box stores and stuffed into containers with the requisite kale and ornamental peppers one sees all over the city. On one hand, these cold hardy plants will last into December and look better than the wilting potato vines and begonias from summer's containers. But I find the big mounds of orange, yellow and red a little too robust. And then what happens after the flowers fade? Now you have a grey mound to deal with...

(Maybe the bias I have against non-hardy "annuals" in general stems from my reluctance to pay for them in May and chuck them out in October. With fall mums, we buy them in October, throw them out in December and not bat an eyelash: truly disposable plants!)

Now the chrysanthemums (no one would dare call these "mums" said the hybridizer) on display at the Conservatory aren't, for the most part, what you'd normally see on the streets. I suspect that many aren't cold-hardy, assuming this trait has been bred right out of them in exchange for frilly petals, massive blooms, etc. But let's not quibble over plant hardiness (who cares, you're in a greenhouse!) and enjoy the show with me:

Allan Gardens Conservatory 2014
Fall Chrysanthemum Show

Allan Gardens Conservatory 2014
Fall Chrysanthemum Show red mum

Allan Gardens Conservatory Fall
Chrysanthemum Show 2014 pink frilly mum

Allan Gardens Conservatory Fall
Chrysanthemum Show 2014 pink frilly mums

Allan Gardens Conservatory Fall
Chrysanthemum Show 2014 pink mum

Allan Gardens Conservatory Fall
Chrysanthemum Show 2014 fairy gardening

Looks like the Conservatory has succumbed to the Fairy Gardening craze this year (or the gardener was channeling Lewis Carroll.)

Flowers made up of flowers....very trippy.

Allan Gardens Conservatory Fall
Chrysanthemum Show 2014 Fairy House

I won't be a curmudgeon and offend Fairy Gardeners out there. I admire the artist who put this together: to design and create on such small scale are qualities I lack, along with the patience.

Kudos to you, sir or madame!