Were you organized for Mother's Day this year? Picking up a bunch of flowers is sometimes left to the last minute. But for growers across Australia, planting is timed months ahead of the big day. While roses take center stage for Valentine's Day, it's chrysanthemums that are typically associated with celebrating mums.
The brightly colored perennial belongs to the daisy plant family and comes from the Greek words 'chrysos,' meaning gold, and 'anthemom', which translates to flower.
Vaughn Kemsley has grown chrysanthemums on his commercial flower farm at Paper Beach in northern Tasmania for 26 years. It's a year-round operation, and planting starts in December.
Mr. Kemsley's 10 staff are involved in planting 16,000 cuttings every 10 days. "For Mother's Day, I grow two types, the spray chrissies, and the disbud chrissies," Mr. Kemsley said. "The disbud chrissies are one single stem with a big head on them. "I have a team that comes in between March and April, who are working every day to remove the side lateral to create that chrysanthemum.
Read more at abc.net.au
