Saugerties town summer employees with some of the 500 mums they’ve spent the last two weeks planting. Pictured are George Beiser, Mackenzie Dunn and Nick Brennan. (photo by Robert Ford)
Five hundred mums were planted at Seamon Park over the last two weeks, and another 1500 will go into the ground in the coming weeks in preparation for the annual Mum Festival. George Terpening, superintendent of Parks, Buildings, and Grounds, said his workers usually plant about 1200 new mum plants each year in preparing for the festival that not only celebrates mums, but the beauty of Seamon Park.
There’ll be more this year. “This year we’re planting more because the cost of mums is down, and donations for their purchase is up,” Terpening explained. Donations for the annual festival come from mum lovers who send checks to village hall at 43 Partition Street, Saugerties, 12477 to go towards the purchase of the plants.
While mum-lover donations are a big part of the purchase of the chrysanthemums, larger donations from the Saugerties Kiwanis Club and the Blue Katz community service club, who provide the major bulk of the funds, Terpening said.
The Kiwanis’ donation is up this year, Terpening said. Club members come out every year to help decorate the park.
The Blue Katz donation is also up from last year. The group sells food during the annual Mum Festival and donates the money back to the event.
The Seamon Park trustees also make funds available for the event.
“This year is shaping up to something special,” Terpening said.
None of the new mums have yet bloomed, of course. That’s expected to happen next month and in early October. Visitors can visit the park and try to guess what colors the various mums will be. They can see if they were right when the mums flower. There’s always a virtual rainbow of mum colors.
If yiu know your flowers, it isn’t all guesswork. According to one worker at the park, the leaves of the plants provide a hint as to what the color of the blooms will be.