Every autumn, when most flowers fade and the air turns crisp, chrysanthemums rise to the occasion—radiant, resilient, and just a little bit defiant. In Chinese culture, they’ve long been loved as the flower of the scholar and the recluse, admired for blooming with grace when the rest of the garden has gone to sleep. They represent endurance, integrity, and the quiet confidence of standing apart.

The poet Tao Yuanming (陶淵明) knew that feeling well. Living over 1,600 years ago, Tao was a scholar who decided he’d had enough of the noise and politics of official life. He quit his job, went home, planted beans, and wrote poetry about the simple pleasures of country living—wine, mountains, and, of course, chrysanthemums.

採菊東籬下，悠然見南山。

I pick chrysanthemums beneath the eastern fence,
And leisurely see the southern mountain.

It’s an image of complete peace: sunlight on petals, a gentle breeze, and the soft rustle of leaves. Tao found freedom not by running away from the world, but by finding calm within it.

Now, I’ll be honest—I didn’t always get the hype about chrysanthemums. Growing up in Taiwan, small white mums were the flowers we brought to visit ancestors’ tombs. To me, they smelled like incense and melancholy. I couldn’t understand why anyone, least of all a famous poet, would fall in love with them.

That changed the first autumn I worked at Lan Su Chinese Garden. I walked into the garden one crisp morning and found myself surrounded by chrysanthemums in every imaginable form—golden cascades, delicate spider blooms, fiery pom-poms the size of my hands. Each flower seemed alive with personality: elegant, eccentric, determined. Suddenly, I understood what Tao Yuanming meant. These were not flowers of mourning—they were flowers of spirit.

This year’s Chrysanthemum Festival Floral Design Showcase captures that same revelation. Twenty-one floral artists will transform the garden with larger-than-life displays by day and glow-in-the-dark installations during Nights of Golden Flower. (Yes, we challenge our participating floral artists to incorporate lights in their designs!)

It’s a celebration of beauty, art, and rediscovery—a reminder that sometimes, the things we overlook can surprise us the most. Like Tao Yuanming, we might just find our “southern mountain” right here, blooming quietly behind a fence of gold petals.

See you amongst the mums this fall!