Asian Tulips | Beautiful Flower For Your Life !

We’re talking about exhibition variety chrysanthemums (also called football and spider mums), those nine-to-twelve-inch-wide flowers you mainly see in florist arrangements, or at chrysanthemum shows.

McLeod grows 250 chrysanthemums, representing 61 varieties. He’s a species of gardener with a strong passion for one group of plants. But why chrysanthemums?

“Partly, when I was a kid, these are the flowers I remember. And there’s not too much blooming this late (in autumn), and they last for two months in their pots,” he says.

McLeod grew up in Scotland, and speaks with the enchanting music of his birth country. Tall and ruddy, with white hair, he looks like he just stepped off the heather moors.

A retired math professor, he was looking for a useful project. He lives near Courtyard Village retirement community and drove past it often. A lightbulb went off–he would offer to teach others how to propagate and nurture chrysanthemums.

“Growing chrysanthemums means messing with things nine months a year. I was thinking of this as an activity,” he says. “Some of the residents were keen gardeners before they moved here.”

You take cuttings from the mother plants in March, and from that time until fall flowering there are many tasks. He pictured sharing the process with interested seniors as a fun way to bring them together.

In October 2008 McLeod took chrysanthemums in full bloom to the residence to see if anyone was interested.

“There was more enthusiasm than I expected,” he says. He held a meeting in December, and in February 2009 fifteen residents launched the project. A core group of eight remain, and I met with three of the women and McLeod at Courtyard Village to learn more.

“We call it a club,” says Pat Hershey. She not only grows the chrysanthemums but shares them with her neighbors, and also photographs them.

“We were not that well acquainted at first–180 people live here. Robin brought in big pots and we’d sit around the table and take cuttings,” Hershey adds.

Cuttings dipped in rooting hormone are set in seed trays filled with damp sterile potting soil. The trays are covered with plastic domes that stand about seven inches tall, like mini-greenhouses. It takes a month for roots to develop. McLeod keeps his trays in the basement, while the women use their windowsills.

It’s tempting to lift the dome and check the cuttings.

“I couldn’t help but look at them all the time and peek,” Helen Cooper admitted. “I’d take the lid off and water them a little.”

“I learned to leave them alone,” says Hershey.