Loving Chrysanthemums and Other Fun Stories... :)

So youse all know I grow a lot of mums here on the farm.

Now not huge by mega farm standards, but huge compared to what normal folks do!

Two here... three there.... and a pair of pumpkins on the steps. For those normal people...

I started with 800 mums last year. 750 of them got planted. One strip hung around, hoping for a home but we didn't have enough pots....

They all sold within three weeks.... maybe 3.5. This is Chelsey Coral:

So this year (in all my bright wisdom) I ordered 1600 mums so we'd have some in October... And here's the cool part:

Mums blossom based on the hours of daylight in the day.

If they need 11.5 hours, they'll bloom when they get to 11.5 hours of daylight. This is Patty Purple but it's really more of a cranberry... and it's a huge plant, about 12" across, overflowing an 8" pot...

If they need 13 hours, they'll bloom then, and in my latitude that's like mid-August...

And the 12 hour mums are just starting to bloom now, right on time for mid-September.

This amazes me. It's like the perfect timing of God, that the plant knows when to initiate the budding process so it blooms at the right time. I know a lot of people who could learn something from these plants, a lesson about blooming where you're planted... and at the right time!

The bicolors are VERY POPULAR.... they change color, kind of like those kid toys that change color based on temperature... as they bloom,  the inside fades to another color and they are stunning.

Orange fusion... pearl fusion.... peach fusion.... Early plants that people buy quickly because they're so stinkin' pretty!

So the early mums have been selling and we're just bringing the later mums up... and they're stunning... and while it was a lot of work to care for 1600 flowers by hand, there is such a beautiful satisfaction in a job well done. To bring these plants to fruition, to have them ready for market and have customers love them!

Of course there were a few duds... a few guys who didn't form right, who listed right... or left... or just looked BAD....

But that was kind of like life, too, that not everyone (or every mum) calls from the same mold and that we can still love them, even if they're "needy" plants.

I love this season. We are blessed with color for over two months... green leaves, thick, green bushes, gorgeous flowers (although many customers told me that their normally lush summer flowers were just plain mad about the heat and drought and refused to stay pretty, so they're buying mums to spruce things up.

I understand.

I wilt then, too!

This is a lot like our writing.... we work and work and work and some of it stays, some of it doesn't measure up and a lot of it needs pruning.... and that's all right, too!

Life's analogies teach us in so many ways, a lot like that very clever savior talking in parables...

Knowing we had so much to learn!

Okay, cooking on the farm is taking a back seat to sales and moving pumpkins and flowers and more pumpkins...

So this week it's a flower report and maybe food next week.

But I did say maybe!

Multi-published, award-winning author Ruth Logan Herne is thick in the middle of harvest on their pumpkin farm in Western New York  but she still gets up in the wee smalls...the only quiet time in her house... and works on writing beautiful sweet stories because that's about her favorite thing in this world to do... along with baking, gardening, painting and playing with fourteen adorable grandchildren! Follow her on Twitter, friend her on facebook or stop by her website ruthloganherne.com. She loves to chat with people!