|
|
Mum's the Word
1 Sep, 2008 By: Heather Pittinger LivescapesYODER BROTHERS HELPS ITS HEADQUARTERS CITY CELEBRATE ITS BIRTHDAY WITH A MULTITUDE OF MUMS.
"It all starts with a plan."
So says Bill Aulenbach, retired marketing manager and current consultant for Yoder Brothers, Barberton, OH. Aulenbach is speaking of Barberton's Mum Fest, which started in 1991 as the Northeast Ohio city's centennial celebration but has since grown to become a cherished annual event.
 |
Each year, the centerpiece of the festival, which encompasses everything from fair food and sand sculptures to canoe races and mural painting at the town's iconic Lake Anna, is a vibrant display of chrysanthemums. This year's design is filled with sunbursts, taking up 13,192 sq. ft. divided into 55 sections in the Northeast corner of Lake Anna Park's grounds. A mum arch and hanging baskets throughout the grounds complete the look.
Brian Coffman, a landscape architect with the City of Barberton's Parks and Recreation Department, designs the display. Aulenbach then takes the design and fills in with the appropriate varieties — about 22 in all — with contrasting colors. Think of a paint-by-numbers kit, he says.
"I start around the week of Christmas and New Year's to be ready by late August," he explains. "There are only certain varieties that can be used to flower in time for the festival. Also, certain varieties take more or less spacing than others to provide a mass of color. For example, Jillian produces a smaller head, so I would put those plants in a 10-x-10 ft. space instead of a 12-x-12 space. I literally measure with a yardstick."
The timing of the festival also plays a role. This year, it takes place Sept. 20-21, and Aulenbach chooses his varieties accordingly: "We want them to be fully open, not just cracking open. We want a collage of color. We want the blooms to be touching."
The mums are fertilized with a small injector unit that is installed for the project and then removed in mid-November. It spreads about 400 parts per million (ppm) of a nitrogen phosphate and potassium mix three times a week until the mums "get to be a good size," Aulenbach says. "Then we use just straight water."
 Bill Aulenbach and Lisa McLean inspect one of the fledgling sections of this year's display. |
Trend Spotting
Lisa McLean, who leads Barberton's Beautification Program in the Parks and Recreation Department, notes that city officials initially approached Yoder Brothers simply for a donation of mum cuttings for the centennial event back in 1991. But the company saw the opportunity to partner with the city and make the festival a way for the community to come together and enjoy Lake Anna Park.
It's also a way to get to know how consumers feel about mums. A tent is set up near the display to resell about 4,000 potted mums. Aulenbach, who has been with Yoder Brothers since 1956, notes that some interesting trends have emerged.
"For example, white is the last color they buy because some of them believe white doesn't last long," he says. "But with new varieties, that's simply not true."
Another myth Aulenbach works to dispel is that daisy mums don't last as long as their traditional counterparts. "It used to be that the pollen matured more quickly on that type," he admits, "but what Yoder has done in the last 40 to 50 years is breed them so that the pollen matures slowly, and in some cases, doesn't mature at all."
Aulenbach notes that bright red is a favorite color among consumers, as is purple — although the latter might be popular simply because the colors of the hometown team, the Barberton Magics, are purple and white.
1 2
Please send any technical comments or questions to our webmaster.