Marvelous mums

The production of millions of nearly identical pots of cushion-style chrysanthemums has reduced this versatile plant to being a throwaway American seasonal cliche, kind of the poinsettia of autumn. But in Japan they take mums seriously. In fact, chrysanthemums - "kiku" in Japanese - have been revered for centuries as the crest of Japan's imperial family and, more recently, as the national flower.

The Japanese don't just grow chrysanthemums. They train them.

The Japanese emperor even had his own private chrysanthemum show for invited guests at his Tokyo garden, Shinjuku Gyoen, where chrysanthemums were pinched and wired for a solid year to create highly stylized displays that, for instance, echoed the colored tassels on the imperial horses' bridles. Now open to the public, the Tokyo chrysanthemum show dazzled New York Botanical Garden trustees, who visited it seven years ago, said Margaret Falk, NYBG associate vice president.

"They were amazed at the display of beauty and technical horticultural skill," she said, "and wondered if there was some way we could do that here."

The process turned into a cultural exchange, with American gardeners training with Shinjuku Gyoen's Kiku Master Yasuhira Iwashita to create the most extensive display of chrysanthemums grown in the imperial style ever presented outside Japan. It promises to be a blockbuster flower show, the horticultural equivalent of borrowing the Rembrandts or Vermeers from Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. The show will be accompanied by an exhibit of botanical illustrations and a wide range of lectures and programs on Japanese culture.

Closer to home, Smith College's Lyman Conservatory has its own chrysanthemum show Nov. 3-18, and this one is free to the public. A reception and flower show preview will follow a lecture by biologist Elizabeth Farnsworth on rare plants of the Connecticut River Valley Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. A century-old tradition, the annual Smith show features carefully trained cascade chrysanthemums and mum varieties bred by current and past undergraduates, with some flowers dating back to the 1930s.

You can learn more about growing and training the many kinds of chrysanthemums by visiting the website of the National Chrysanthemum Society at mums.org. And if you're just looking for a tough hardy garden mum that will come back every year (unlike those common cushion mums), Falk recommends Korean mums such as late-flowering Mary Stoker.