SARATOGA, Calif.—Colorful blooms brightened the room at the Joan Pisani Community Center in Saratoga during an annual chrysanthemum show that was held Oct. 29–30.
The show was hosted by the Bay Area Chrysanthemum Society, which has held the event for 10 years. Every year, club members get to display the results of their passion, patience, and care. NTD, a sister media of The Epoch Times, spoke to some of the growers.
“My father used to grow show chrysanthemums, but then as I grew older, I was busy with life and family and job and things. And then when I was close to retirement, I happened to see the first show of this, which was in Santa Clara, and I was like, ‘This is my opportunity,’” said Kalpana Shyam, vice president of the Bay Area Chrysanthemum Society.
The goal of the club is to promote cultivation and preservation of chrysanthemums, or “mums” for short.
“Not everybody likes the same flower,” Shyam said. “I might like these open-centered daisies; somebody else might like these balls. This is called a cushion variety. Somebody might like that.”
Mums come in many different shapes, colors, and sizes, but they are divided into 13 classifications.
This year, a panel of nine chrysanthemum judges selected the best flowers. The best of the best were displayed at the head table.
“One of the things they have to look for is the stem has to be straight. The flower has to be the size it should be, because some of these may be all very good but the size is small and they won’t like it. The color may be faded, and it should be a fresh bloom,” Shyam said.
To produce show-worthy flowers, growers need to grow a variety, have consistent watering, fertilize a lot, make sure the plants get sunlight, and keep bugs away.
“The biggest thing about show [chrysanthemums] is that you have to do what’s called disbudding,” Shyam said. “If you didn’t remove them, they’ll be in a big bunch. So if you remove those, then the center flower gets all the nutrition, and then it grows as big as it can.”
Chester Unciano, co-chair of the chrysanthemum show, joined the club in 2018 and has been growing mums since. He brought in a large yellow chrysanthemum that won second place.
“This species here is a Houston species of an irregular incurving kind. So it’s a class 1 variety. And it’s a Class A because it’s a bigger variety,” Unciano said.
The growing season starts with cutting in April and lasts until blooming in late summer or early winter, around October.
“It’s the discovery of new cultivars and how to get better from growing them. Just the diversity of the plants makes you keep going,” Unciano said.
“The process is very enjoyable and very fun, and I love to grow flowers, and it’s rewarding. I got first prize for this one,” said Ava Fung Wollman, a Fremont resident.
Wollman bought the plant from a sample sale and had no idea it would grow to be a unique flower. It turned out to be a magenta-purple flat-topped Gyokkouin.
“I did not know [what] it looks like until I saw it this week. It opened up this week; I just saw it. And I picked that because the name … nobody can spell the name, and it’s exotic. And also it’s an Imperial, a Japanese Imperial flower, the symbol,” Wollman said.
Growers tend to grow more in hopes that at least one is presentable. Therefore, people can submit multiple entries.
“I never knew that chrysanthemums could turn into a bonsai, so this is my first year trying chrysanthemum bonsai, so I entered four of them,” Wollman said.
“When you create something that’s really good, it has its own satisfaction. So it’s a journey, really, not just the last day,” Shyam said.
Although winners only receive a ribbon, seeing peoples’ smiles is their greatest reward.
“There’s this lady in a wheelchair yesterday. I think she was being wheeled in by her granddaughter,” Unciano recalled. “She saw the blooms out there, and she was pointing to the yellow bloom ... ‘I want to take pictures of this and this and this.’ It was cute.”
The nonprofit is funded by their cutting sales in June. The club consists of about a hundred members.
