Mum’s (not) the word.

I will admit to being a sucker for a lovely flower.  And when I saw this one at Walmart at the beginning of October I just grabbed it and put it in my cart.

Even though I don’t really have a good history with mums.  In fact I believe that while in NC I tried mums once and swore off them forever.  But how could I resist those bi-color petals?  So I didn’t even try.  And I told myself that this time around, my experience with mums would be different.  They would thrive and be beautiful in a place of honor on my bridge and I would enjoy looking at them every day.

Except.

I forgot to ask around.  To get the native opinion on how mums thrive in what they euphemistically call “liquid sunshine.” 

And after two nights of heavy “liquid sunshine” (is it “liquid moonshine” at night?) this is what my beautiful mum looked like.

Let’s look at that from another angle, shall we?

 

Thrashed.  Completely.

And that’s why I’d ask, should you see me sidling up to a brightly colored mum, that you remind me gently (and not so gently) of my previous experience with mums.  Tell me to save my money.  Or to use my money to buy some chocolate.  Because I’ll get to enjoy it for about the same amount of time, and with chocolate there wouldn’t be a bad taste left in my mouth…