Chrysanthemum Beauty Blooms at Descanso

The surprising variety and breathtaking beauty of chrysanthemums will decorate Descanso Gardens Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 12 and 13, during a show and sale sponsored by the Descanso and Glendale Chrysanthemum Societies.

This annual event at Descanso has been the largest and most diverse chrysanthemum show in the nation for the past two years.

Again this year, as many as 300 varieties of chrysanthemums will be exhibited. Judging will be done in a number of categories and the exhibit will feature many "late-blooming" varieties, including spider mums, chrysanthemum trees and bonsai.

Exhibitors will display exotic and familiar chrysanthemums and compete for awards in artistic (arrangements) and horticultural (plants and cut flowers) categories.

The judges will represent the National Chrysanthemum Society. Many plants and bouquets will be available for sale and experts will explain how to care for them.

The Glendale Chrysanthemum Society has exhibited at Descanso for more than three decades and the two groups together have produced spectacular shows there for many years.

The chrysanthemum, a diverse plant with more than 10,000 named varieties worldwide, is native to China, Japan and Europe. It is such a part of the Japanese culture that the imperial seat of power, the oldest monarchy in the world reportedly founded in 660 BC, is known as the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Although members of the Chrysanthemum societies will be at the National show in Sacramento during Descanso's Japanese Garden Festival Nov. 5 and 6, some of their plants will help set the stage for that festival's events.

Descanso Gardens is at 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge.