>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom"

is brought to you by...

Albertsons Companies...

with additional support from the

following...

CalFlowers...

Dollar Tree...

Sunshine Bouquet.

♪

>> Mum's the word today on

"Life in Bloom" --

chrysanthemum, that is.

We'll explore the many shapes,

sizes, and colors of this

durable, long-lasting flower.

We'll learn how they're grown.

I'll show you a fun craft.

And we'll even have a

chrysanthemum cocktail.

Say that three times fast.

♪

I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

"Why don't you get a haircut?

You look like a chrysanthemum."

Chrysanthemums have always been

a big part of my life.

My family started growing them

as a cut flower way back in the

early 1900s.

The chrysanthemum house was an

impressive backdrop for many

family photographs.

This painting was commissioned

by my great-grandfather for my

great-grandmother.

It features chrysanthemums that

were grown in the greenhouse.

Chrysanthemums are long-lasting,

durable flowers.

At the same time, they have

certain challenges when it comes

to growing.

They naturally bloom when days

get shorter and nights are

longer, so we had elaborate

shade cloths that had to be

pulled each day over the top of

the benches to fool the plants

into thinking it was fall.

At the same time, when the days

got too short, we had to light

them to simulate and stimulate

blooming.

Naturally, chrysanthemums

produce many blooms.

But if you want one singular

large bloom on an individual

stem, you need to disbud.

Disbudding the plant means

you're carefully removing the

buds just as soon as they're

visible so that all the strength

goes into one central bud.

And you get what we used to call

a football mum, so called

because we would make homecoming

corsages out of the large

blooms.

Chrysanthemums are composite

flowers, meaning that the flower

is made up of hundreds of petals

that all sprout from the center

of the bloom.

Each individual petal supports

the petals around it.

And unfortunately, if you bump,

ding, or otherwise rough up a

chrysanthemum and knock out a

few petals, the other petals

will soon follow suit.

We used to wax mums by lighting

a candle and dripping wax on the

back side of the calyx, thus

reinforcing the flower before it

was made into a corsage or

placed into a bouquet.

But today, modern companies have

hybridized and created much

stronger flowers.

There's also a fun aspect of the

chrysanthemum -- exploding.

As kids, we would hit a bloom on

the table or bench for fun to

watch it explode.

This didn't make either my

parents or my grandparents very

happy.

But it's an interesting

homecoming football tradition to

burst your corsage when the home

team makes its first touchdown.

And the audience would be

showered in mum petals that

typically were one of the

home-team colors.

Now I'll create an arrangement

reminiscent of my

great-grandmother's painting.

I'm using a shallow container,

so I'll create a gridwork with

clear waterproof tape.

This structure will hold the

flowers in place.

♪

So you see, there's a lot of

personal history and experience

and lots and lots of love that

goes into my fondness for the

regal chrysanthemum.

♪

Spray chrysanthemum are also

referred to as daisy

chrysanthemum, buttons, or

pompons.

The name chrysanthemum is

derived from the Ancient Greek

"chrysos," meaning "gold," and

"anthemon," meaning "flower."

Most chrysanthemum species

originate from East Asia.

Chrysanthemums were first

cultivated in China as a

flowering herb as far back as

the 15th century BC.

Chrysanthemums entered American

horticulture in 1798, when

Colonel John Stevens imported a

cultivated variety known as

Dark Purple from England.

Chrysanthemum plants have been

shown to reduce indoor air

pollution by the NASA Clean Air

Study.

The chrysanthemum is also the

flower of November.

♪

I had the pleasure of visiting

one of the few farms in the

United States that still

includes chrysanthemum in the

mix of flowers they grow --

Ocean Breeze International.

The sights and smells of this

visit reminded me of my

childhood, largely spent inside

my family's greenhouses.

>> We have gerbera daisies,

chrysanthemums, plus we grow

about another seven acres of

natural mums, callas, the

colored callas, the miniature

ones, three acres of hydrangeas.

We also have three acres of

Orientals, lilies.

If you add every single stem

that we move out of this

facility, between 30 million to

35 million stems of product is

moved out of these facilities.

>> Wow.

>> And that's a lot of flowers.

>> So, Rene, tell me how we

progress with all these.

>> After the flowers have been

cut, we mow the stubble so we

get nice organic matter back

into the soil again.

Then we rototill it.

We put a steam tarp on there,

what we call pasteurization.

We put -- We cook the soil,

basically, for about four hours.

And to keep it economically

feasible, we started putting on

a blanket on top of that, and

that has basically cut our

energy use in half.

>> Now, you and I -- I love this

today, 'cause we had a good

connection point.

We were talking about the

pasteurization, the smell that

you get when you're cooking the

dirt.

>> That's right, that's right.

>> And you and I, we both like

it.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And it is.

It's an amazing smell that I

remember as a kid being in the

greenhouses and having that

smell.

>> It's a clean smell.

It's a clean smell.

It's a memory smell.

>> It is, yeah, 'cause there's

nothing else that smells like

it.

>> The chrysanthemum is a time

crop, and that's actually the

good part about it, because you

take roses, for instance, okay,

everybody wants red for

Valentine, and everybody wants

pink for Easter, and everybody

wants yellow for Easter.

Again, you know, we can dictate

what we have for each holiday.

We control our blooming pattern

by saying, okay, we turn the

lights on.

We leave them on for six weeks

in a row at night, and then we

say, okay, lights off, and then

it's guaranteed to have blooms

in seven to nine weeks,

depending what variety we grow.

>> Okay, and you do this

outside, as well.

>> We do this outside, as well.

We do it for about six months

out of the year.

>> And then you cycle through

with the lighting outside.

>> We cycle through.

We can only do that in the

latter part of the year when we

have enough short days.

♪

These are called spray mums,

okay?

We take the center ones out, so

that way we get all the other

ones mature.

>> So, my grandfather used to

tell me that he would -- He

always liked us to get in there

early to get those little buds

off the sides so that that big

China mum would come on there.

>> That's correct, yes.

>> And you're popping this one

out of the center so that the

other shoots come up.

>> Other shoots come up, 'cause

what happens is, what your

grandfather said was -- he's

totally correct.

The younger you get them, the

less growth will go to the side

buds.

>> Oh, so there's more strength.

>> More strength to the center

for the China mums.

But it's the reverse for us.

We're growing spray

chrysanthemums, and we need to

get the center bud out so it

doesn't bloom prematurely while

the rest of the blooms are still

not ripe yet.

>> Okay.

And so that takes us to where we

are over here, then.

>> That's correct, yes.

So we always say, you know,

after disbud, two weeks, we cut

flowers.

>> Wow.

>> So next week Monday, we'll be

cutting flowers here.

>> But we're all talking about

disbuds.

>> Disbuds, yes.

Disbuds are Fuji mums.

They are -- Go ahead.

>> A football mum.

>> A China mum.

>> A standard mum.

>> Correct.

>> We got a whole bunch of names

for them -- a spider.

We're talking all about the same

thing.

>> All disbuds.

And the other ones are sprays.

>> Are sprays, correct.

>> And a spray is what we also

call a pompon.

>> Correct, yes.

>> Okay.

>> Yes.

>> And so this is where they get

picked.

>> That's correct, yes.

So this is 15 weeks from when

they were planted.

>> Wow.

And so once they're picked, the

cycle starts all over again.

>> All over again.

>> Amazing.

Thanks for sharing that with us.

I appreciate being able to see

it.

>> There you go.

It's my pleasure.

♪

>> I'm sure all of you are

familiar with the smiley face

mum.

We used to make these all the

time back in my store in the

'70s.

But I thought today it would be

fun to update that in a fun

project for kids.

We're gonna create emoticon

mums.

We use black pipe cleaners.

And we can create the eyes just

by rolling those pipe

cleaners...

into a circle.

♪

That makes a period.

We can do the same thing.

We'll roll it.

♪

And that makes a comma.

'Cause remember, emoticons are

based on the symbols from your

keyboard on your phone or

computer.

The next one...

is the letter P.

So we're gonna form that into a

♪

Next, we're gonna apply these to

the mum itself.

This is a rare exception to one

of my stringent rules.

I tell you never, ever to use

hot glue on fresh flowers,

especially when we're dealing

with corsages or boutonnieres.

But today we're attaching the

pipe cleaner to the face of the

mum, and it works best using a

low-temp glue gun.

So we'll start with our P.

We'll glue the glue on the

back...

and place it on the front of the

mum.

♪

So again, remember, semicolon

and then the capital P.

And that makes the tongue-out

symbol.

We can create all sorts of

different emoticons on the mums.

♪

For years, we've turned our

feelings into flowers.

Emoticons actually allow us to

express our emotions through an

icon on the computer.

So combining these two is a

modern way for us to tell a

story or share our emotions

through a flower arrangement.

I created some for you today so

you can have some examples.

The heart, which is the

greater-than sign and the 3.

Of course, we've got sad.

There's surprised.

It can even be angry.

So let's create a little bud

vase that incorporates some of

these emoticons.

♪

It's a great way to combine the

smiley face mum with emoticons.

You might even call them

"emoti-mums."

♪

I had never heard of the

chrysanthemum cocktail, so I had

to investigate.

It turns out it's an

over-century-old cocktail

created in 1916 that was served

on board cruise ships during the

prohibition.

Let's take a look at how this

simple cocktail's made.

This is a relatively simple

recipe, but remember to measure

exactly.

2 ounces of dry vermouth.

1 ounce of Bénédictine.

3 teaspoons of absinthe.

We'll stir the ingredients...

and strain into a chilled coupe

glass.

The recipe calls for a garnish

with an orange twist, but we'll

also add a chrysanthemum.

It's light and herbal with a

sweet ending.

♪

In this bouquet, I'm including a

variety of chrysanthemum called

Magnum that resemble dahlias.

And I'll show you my special

technique to subtly change up

their color.

The mechanic for today's project

is thinking about your index

finger and thumb as a vase.

And all of the flowers will go

into the vase at a 45-degree

angle and on top of the last

flower.

That's gonna give us a perfect

spiral and a perfect mechanic

for a hand-tied bouquet.

I'm changing the color of this

mum to match the color palette

of this bouquet.

I accomplish this using spray

paint in a well-ventilated area.

It's important to keep the

nozzle 10 to 12 inches away from

the flower to prevent freezing

the petals.

I apply several light coats of

paint, front and back, so I have

control over the depth of color.

♪

I'm creating the base for this

arrangement using a soaked

flower foam wreath, then cutting

and placing soaked flower foam

into the center of the wreath.

♪

Bevel the edges of the flower

foam.

♪

I cut the pompon blooms short

and will cover the center of

this arrangement completely with

flowers.

♪

Let's fill in the wreath frame

with a variety of chrysanthemums

in different shapes and sizes.

♪

Chrysanthemums have been a

florist staple for many years

due to their obvious positive

attributes -- color, durability,

and long-lasting properties.

So it's been exciting to look at

them through a new lens.

I hope you have a new

appreciation for one of the most

varied family of flowers that

exists.

For "Life in Bloom," I'm

J Schwanke.

Test one, two, three.

>> Are you sure you want to do

this, J?

>> Positive.

Ah, I do my own stunts.

Okay?

We're good?

>> Yep.

>> Come on in!

The water's fine!

♪

>> Find your glasses now.

>> I did.

>> Hate to tell you, you said

water...

>> I know I did.

>> I see them.

They're right by your right

foot.

It's alright.

>> How was it?

I'm fine.

>> Okay, don't worry about it.

>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom"

is filmed in Grand Rapids,

Michigan.

>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom"

is brought to you by...

Albertsons Companies...

with additional support from the

following...

CalFlowers...

Dollar Tree...

Sunshine Bouquet.

♪

Closed-caption funding provided

by Holland America Flowers.

♪

For everything flowers, recipes,

projects, and more information,

visit ubloom.com.

♪