The Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens
If you're in or near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania now through November 16th, stop by and visit the Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens.
While I was at QVC earlier this week, I had the opportunity to see the colorful mum display. Longwood has a rich and varied history. For thousands of years, the native Lenni Lenape tribe fished its streams, hunted its forests, and planted its fields. In 1700, Quaker farmer, George Peirce, purchased 400-acres of the English-claimed land and began developing the property. His decedents eventually created an arboretum of some of the finest trees in the nation. Unfortunately, as years passed, heirs lost interest and the land suffered decades of neglect until 1906, when it was obtained by Pierre du Pont - entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family. Pierre's passion and vision created the groundwork for what is now Longwood Gardens - home to many spectacular botanical collections spread across 1,100-acres - all wonderfully maintained by a staff of more than 400 employees, students and volunteers.
Enjoy these photos from the 2025 annual Chrysanthemum Festival.
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- Longwood showcases one of North America’s largest and oldest collections of chrysanthemums in this festival every year.
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- The event displays more than 200 chrysanthemum cultivars from big football-sized mums to incurves, and spiders planted in spheres, pagodas, towers, and more.
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- In this area, Longwood presents samples of each of the 13 classes of chrysanthemums defined by bloom shape and bred for color, size and unique form.
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- This is a Class 1 Irregular Incurve Chrysanthemum ‘Crimson Tide’ with its unique ruby tones and incurved petals. It features deep burgundy color with silvery copper accents.
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- Single and Semi Double Mums are members of Class 7. This mum is called ‘Two-Tone Pink.’
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- In contrast is the Class 10 Quill ‘King’s Delight.’ The quill mums have needle-like petals that resemble quills. These flowers grow upright on strong stems reaching about 12 to 18 inches tall.
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- This Spoon Class chrysanthemum has petals that are spoon-shaped with cupped edges. They typically come in pink, red, white, and yellow. This variety is called ‘Mary1.’
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- The Reflex Class chrysanthemum ;Garnet King’ is one of the deepest red produced mums. It was originally introduced in 1928.
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- Exotic or unclassified mums are characterized by their unique shapes and colors, often with twisted or bi-shaded florets that change as they open. This variety is ‘Edo 21.’
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- And look at this gorgeous Quill chrysanthemum – ‘Seaton’s Ashleigh,’ a quilled purple-pink flower known to be long-lasting and weather tolerant.
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- ‘Satomi Orange’ is a Semi-Double chrysanthemum with erect woody-based stems and aromatic flowers in a rusty orange yellow.
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- This Anemone class mum is called ‘Purple Light.’ It is loved for its vigorous growth and rich purple-pink blooms. Its flowers are about two and a half inches in diameter and changes color through the season, becoming paler mauve as flowers mature.
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- Pompom is another class, number 6. This is ‘Kermit.’ The Pompom class, or spray chrysanthemums, come in a variety of colors and are well-known for their long vase life, lasting 14 to 20 days. The flowers are incurve or reflex and show a button-like appearance.
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- Spider chrysanthemums look just as its class name implies. These mums have tubular ray florets that sometimes coil or hook at the ends. This cultivar is ‘Kishi-no-Nishi.’
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- Decorative mums are known for their unique and elaborate forms. ‘Indian Summer’ is a large mum with warm orange blooms.
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- But this year’s highlight is this one plant, an Intermediate Incurve called ‘Susono-no-Hikari.’ This has more than a thousand blooms planted using a centuries-old technique in which a single-stem is trained to produce as many perfectly placed blooms as possible. It took the growing team more than 18-months to train and nurture this plant. It is the biggest of its kind outside Asia.
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- The plant was guided through a labor-intensive multi-step process of pinching, tying, disbudding, and shaping to grow it into its dome form.
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- One perfect bloom grows on each branch.
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- Another artistically trained chrysanthemum is this pagoda form. This is grown with cascade chrysanthemums, ‘Early Seiko.’
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- And this one is ‘Firechief’ – an artistically trained standard form with cascade chrysanthemums.
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- This Intermediate Incurve chrysanthemum is called ‘Gertrude.’ It stands on sturdy stems topped with palm-sized lavender flowers and coated in fuzz – look closely.
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- ‘Icicles’ is another unique variety known for its dark green foliage and waxy, mop-head white flowers.
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- Try to visit if you can. The Longwood Gardens Chrysanthemum Festival is unlike anything one can imagine. See all 66 specialty forms and learn about all the classes. These heirloom and exhibition Chrysanthemums are incredible.
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