The Joy of Chrysanthemums

Over 20 years ago, my husband and I designed a little garden island in the front yard for our flowers. Throughout the years, we've had roses, irises, tulips, alliums, carnations and chrysanthemums. Roses and chrysanthemums, "mums", have remained a constant, where others have perished, or have been banished from our garden. 

The tulips and carnations never took off there. But we had real tall irises and two yucca plants that just took over the whole island. They have since been banished. One of my sisters took the irises last fall, but no one wanted the yuccas. Now, the irises were very pretty, but they were so tall that they always fell over. Same with the yuccas, though not so pretty. 

Since I'm basically lazy when it comes to flowers, that's why I stick with mums. They fill in a garden in the fall with such gorgeous color. And you don't have to do really much of anything to them. Mums can be annuals or perennials, and I always buy perennial since they come back every year. Only once did I mistakenly get some that were annuals. Never again! They, of course, died. If I took the time to dig a hole to put a flower plant in the ground, it better grow and come back every year! Did I say I was lazy??

I usually plant one new mum every year. This year, it's the Matchstick Chrysanthemum. It's a little different than the usual daisy head-ish looking mum. I like the unusual. Just wait until my unusual alliums come up! Unusual is cool.

Our little flower garden island.

Matchstick Chrysanthemums

Take a peak at what they will look like on the link from Burpee below.
http://www.burpee.com/flowers/chrysanthemum/chrysanthemum-matchsticks-prod003057.html

Mums coming up this spring in our island.

Our flower garden needs some cleanup! And that's just what the husband and I intend to do this weekend, while waiting for the perfect time to work on our vegetable gardens. We have a lot of space from getting rid of the yuccas and irises on our little island. So planning something easy for those areas. We have tried to keep the flower garden as maintenance free as possible. Our flower garden gets taken care of maybe once a month, since we are usually busy all the time with our vegetable gardens in our back yard. Looking forward to that soon! Time for flowers now.

Happy gardening!