Mums and Temple Bells

Earlier this week, my friend Donna S. and I trekked out to Northampton, Massachusetts to have lunch and to check out the annual Smith College Mum Show.

 

As we admired the display, Donna, an expert gardener, remarked casually that the only thing Chrysanthemums lack is scent.  Personally, I think the mum smells darn good…like the earth and autumn, freshness and growth.  That’s a pretty nice scent to me. 

 

Still, Chrysanthemums have never been my favorite flower.  To me, they have always been just an impulse buy that I stick in my front yard in order to make the autumn more colorful…like it needs it…duh!  Most years, because I tend to be slow on the uptake, my mums are frosted and dead within a week or so of purchase and my investment is for naught.  But, after seeing the Mum Show, I have changed my opinion of these flowers.  And I think you might see why when you look at my photos. 

Japanese poet Matsuo Basho said, “The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.”  I think that now I might have a better idea of what he meant.