An ode to chrysanthemums: These autumn blooms bring us beauty

Mums. Chrysanthemum, isn’t that just the best word?

Chry-

san-

the-

mum.

More flowers: lily, marigold, orchid, alstroemeria, carnation.

The bloom and blossom of flower words: daisy, lilac, peony, petunia, aster, rose, pansy.

The beauty these words conjure in our minds: daffodil, tulip, iris. Violets – those little purple and white flowers that fill in the yard in spring.

A whole bouquet of flowers for you.

We brought home the golden mums from Marshall’s Farm Market. On our deck, they are so beautiful and lift my spirits daily, rain or shine. Some days I think beauty is my main motivator. To see, touch, and create beauty. To put beautiful life into the world when so many put ugliness. Ugliness that tears down, that blazes a trail of damaged, discarded people. The ugliness of ignorance and hatred, of fear stoked to insensibility.

So chrysanthemums, I say, to drive out the ugliness. A heavy planter laden with copper beauty, the weight a reminder that flowers are solid, material rebukes to vacuous rhetoric.

Chrysanthemum: roots and stems and leaves that integrate the ingredients of soil, water, and sun and grow dense flowers of feather-light petals.

Chrysanthemums. Flowers of fall.

Winter is not yet here, mums say.

Bloom a while longer before resting.

Move towards beauty. The flowers lead the way.

Nature nearby is a recurring column by Eden Prairie resident Amber D. Stoner.