I am grateful for chrysanthemums. and sorry for them too. And thankful I am not one.
Though I have no chrysanthemums to show you. Because I refuse to succumb to the marketing that tricks me to only buying them in the autumn when it is too late to plant them. The chrysanthemum are forced to flower according to a beserker schedule so they can be sold on a certain date chosen by the supermarket marketers.
For that short time they are everywhere. At every supermarket and superstore. In the same weeks. It is madness. And a dreadful comment on how the general public is herded by marketers and the media.
I think the humble chrysanthemum has been exploited. Like corned beef on St Patricks day and orange pumpkins for Halloween. We have been herded into thinking that these plants are only for this short period before the temperatures plummet. They even changed their name to ‘mums’. Sad.
Then on a certain date determined by the supermarket marketing people the left overs are tossed in a dumpster (along with all the unsold vegetables) and replaced with orange pumpkins.
🌼Plant those chrysanthemums in mid summer with your veges instead.
“Companion planting with chrysanthemums can enhance garden health by attracting beneficial insects while discouraging harmful ones. Many gardeners combine them with other plants like marigolds for added protection against pests.
Chrysanthemums are effective companion plants that repel various pests due to the presence of pyrethrin, a natural insecticide.”
So yes. Today I am thankful for the cheerful resilience of the humble chrysanthemum. Even though it is a pawn in the marketing funnel.
Have to say by the time the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos comes around (Nov 1 and 2) (a celebration that makes complete sense to me) the chrysanthemums around here are gone. So. What to think about that.
🌼 Plant them so we can pick our own next year.
(This message is brought to you by a New Zealander in Illinois who still struggles to understand American culture but I do respect it – especially the old ways).
🌷Tomorrow R and I and one of the teenager farm- hands are going to insulate around the inner part of the pig-house trailer (recently vacated by the charlottes and scrubbed out yesterday) so that it’s winter-ready for Freebee and Jude then when the cold weather comes, I’m going to open three gates and let them (Jude and FreeBee) wander about for the day and choose where they want to spend the nights. Back in their root cellar or in the trailer (which has no steps). That could be interesting.
Wai (after being walked all the way back home by yours truly) solemnly inspected all the water bowls on the way to the barn and chose a puddle instead. It took him quite some time to come to this decision!
But he had walked very slowly on his short legs as I escorted him out of the corn field.
It stormed all last night.
Have a lovely day!
Celi
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The Kitchen's Garden 
26 responses to “Thankful I am not a flower caught in a marketing funnel”
I wonder if chrysanthemums can stand up to the slugs? They ate all my marigolds within a day or two of planting and I put in quite a few. The only things slugs don’t seem to like are tomatoes, garlic an onions.
Yes. They do eat chrysanthemums. Bad slugs. I was shocked to discover we don’t have slugs here in central Illinois.
In NZ I surrounded a garden in smashed egg shells one year. Though I can’t remember if it worked! 😀 I bet a ring of DE would put a few off but it is so expensive. And I never knew about Diatomaceous Earth until I got to the US.
You are very lucky! I tried two sprinklings of Diatomaceous Earth on the raised beds last spring but the slugs seemed unphased. Next I sprinkled eggshells and coffee grounds, followed by a dose of nematodes. They worked alongside a few beer traps – not too many though or you attract all the local slugs. They like to drink 😱
I had an issue with them eating my asparagus and cabbage. I got a roll of bendy copper tubing and ran it around those items and it seems to have worked!
It is still raining down here! Has been since Sunday. But we desperately needed the rain to fill up the lakes, rivers and creeks. And turn our ground from crispy to life giving again. Hurrah for the rain!!! 🙂
That is excellent! We have a few more showers today I think but mainly wind and deep cloud. There was a nice drop in the night.
Years ago I bought a pot of purple chrysanthemums. When it came time to throw them out I thought I’ll just plant them and see what happens. They’d be going in the bin anyway so if they didn’t come back I’d bin them in the spring. They survived and grew back the next year and are still going strong (probably 10 years old now) and have spread and did really well this year.
Celi, Animals have their own ways, each highly individualistic, of doing things, as you know. It helps me to practice patience, and to learn their ways. We have had a rainy summer, and things are still soggy. Human animals are individualistic, too, as are plants. Chrysanthemums are fading, but now we are in poinsettia season, for the marketers.
Your blog helps me understand how diverse the climate and geophysical regions are within the US of A. Glad you like hard work and that you have help.
Sun is burning through the clouds now, on US election day, and the rotting dead marsh grass reeds are covering the surface of the salt water. All nature works in harmony with itself, I believe. Even us, though it may take time and distance to see it.
Good day!
Nature is a great leveller and it is important that we listen to her. And yes this is a huge country! Oh – poinsettias! Yes!
Those slugs are a hearty bunch
Which slugs Beth?
The ones that like to eat the mums )
Just came in from a bracing walk in the wind through the park. The waves are crashing on the shoreline. The air is wonderful!! How is your sense of smell developing? Did your experiment smelling essential oils work out? Or … what was it you were going to try to retrain your sense of smell with? I too feel sorry for the pots and pots and POTS of chrysanthemums wilting on the cement walkways outside megastores … Same with the truckloads of cedar branches and pine branches cut and sold for people to stick into sand filled cement pots over the winter. 8(
Yes! It is the essential oils – I use orange, lavender and vanilla and I think that I am smelling better – I smelt a skunk this morning! So – I think there is hope!
Good morning Ceci, Oh my how we love our goofy animals. They do have a mind of their own, although, many of us think we have “trained” them.
Never really cared for chrysanthemums so don’t purchase them here in AZ. Our flower planting is so very different here in this part of the country because of the heat. I’ll take geraniums anyday though….they do really well here and sometimes you can even keep them alive through the summer if you are lucky.
have a wonderful rest of your day,
Jo
My grandmother loved geraniums too – I planted them all over in california. They are so hardy and brigh. Generous flowers and love to grow from cuttings. You only ever need one – right? Thank you for the reminder!
I agree about chrysanthemums, although mums is certainly easier to spell! I feel certain that there are hundreds (possibly thousands) of people out there who believe that they are annuals. So sad and such a waste of money to buy and almost immediately throw away instead of just growing them yourself. One problem though is that you cannot find them in at local nurseries. It used to be (here at least) that there would be a huge clump of small chrysanthemums all lined up ready to buy and be planted out in early spring. No more!
The big growers have taken that over too. Fancy having a monopoly on a plant. Which is why they are so boring and samey I guess.
After my wildflower garden experiment this past summer the idea of organized planting is not for me anymore. Toss out seeds and see what grows. Magical I think! Although I never have been one to fall into the ideas of being told what I should or shouldn’t do at any point- including gardening.On that note- the rocker parked within in the small forest barren of leaves is brilliant. I could easily sit there and watch the world, the animals, the season come and go.
That rocking chair is so evocative. It sits there in the garden just looking peaceful. It would probably fall apart if we sat on it but it is the thought of it that is so lovely.
It rained here part of yesterday and during the night, no thunder and lightning. gusty wind instead. Lovely rain on the roof. If I wanted any flowers for late autumn or winter I’d get the fake ones, they look almost real, they can be stored, many can be gently washed if needed, and used year after year. I had pink, white and red peonies in a red glass vase for years that would come out and be on the dining room table in the spring, mixed flowers in summer and mums then pointsettia for late fall and winter. I may do something like that again in future.
I read a study recently that taking Ginkgo biloba can help restore the sense of smell after illness, it also helps with Altzheimer’s, headaches, etc. It might be worth a try.
Yes ! That might be worth a try. I will look into it and silk flowers are often so beautiful. My MIL has some old silk poppies that are the brightest orange and just look stunning.
Superb post…..and how I dislike the ‘marketing funnel’! – As always great pics and information….thank you:)
The dreaded slugs have destroyed my rocket this spring. I’ve left them to it and hope that they don’t move on to my lettuce next. I’ve tried planting marigolds but they just ate them too.
I also can’t understand American culture and I’m an American…especially after today. I am heartbroken, angry, sad, highly worried for so many people in this country and what we thought was our democracy. How did this fucking happen?
Sorry, we were supposed to be discussing mums…People, just plant them before the ground freezes and they should be ok and revisit you next spring.
Darling Wai.
Marketing is inherently a construct (if a product’s value is not obvious and intrinsic, then why must I be persuaded to buy it?). Personally, I’m not a chrysanthemum fan; too many funeral associations, but the idea of the poor plant life being forced to offer itself up to commerce, only to be flung aside because it’s not beautiful or timely enough is horrible.