LADY BUG: AUTUMN PROVES A BUSY TIME FOR GARDENERS IN REGION

Fall is the time for planting garden chrysanthemums and enjoying the beauties of nature. Garden mums can be purchased at this time of the year in a wide variety of containers ranging from 6-inch pots to 2- to 3-gallon containers, to hanging baskets. The true gardener grows his own, however. Mums wintered well this year.

If you are purchasing mums this year, look for healthy plants with dark green leaves, absence of flower and leaf damage, strong stems, and they should also have healthy long, white roots.

Plant in a fertile, well-drained soil with crumbly texture. Add some peat moss, compost or other organic material. For gardening in containers, it is best to avoid using soil form the yard because it is often heavy and does not drain as well.

In planting from containers, dig a hole for each garden mum, making it slightly larger than the container. Put the mum in the hole gently and firm the soil around it. Thoroughly water the freshly planted mum. Use about one to two gallons of water (a milk jug is a good watering container) for each plant. Continue to water as needed to keep the plant from wilting.

Garden mums planted outdoors in the fall do not need any fertilizer until they begin to grow the following spring.

Like roses, winter survival is uncertain as some varieties are more hardy than others. Hard fall freezes signal the end of the mum season. Do not cut the plants back. It is best to leave stems, and spent blooms on the plant until next spring.

Mulch the bed for protection from injurious winter freezing and thawing cycles during the winter. Use a loose mulch like evergreen boughs, but do not apply mulch until the ground begins to freeze. Sometimes this is in late November. The delay helps to harden the plant for winter.

Gradually remove the mulch in early spring when new growth begins. It is best to divide the plants every other year using the younger plants on the outside of the clump. Separate the well-rooted off-shoots and replant in the same manner as new mum plants.

Children love to see their name used in places other than school. Look for Yoder's elite Prophet series of chrysanthemums. There are many girl's names such as Anna, Denise, Donna, Jessica, Jennifer, Lisa, Lynn, Kimberly, Megan, Nicole, Sarah and others. Wouldn't it be fun for one to find her name on the label of a flower?

Chrysanthemums are known as short-day plants because they flower in fall when days are shorter than at other times of the year (less than 12 hours of daylight per day). Only in this century did plant scientists learn to trick pot and cut mums into flowering all year long by artificially reducing daylight hours to simulate fall.

The regal chrysanthemum so long revered by gardeners the world over is actually a flower of common ancestry. Distant relatives include the sunflower, black-eyed Susan, marigold and even the lowly dandelion. All are members of the Compositae family because of the arrangement of their flowers.

The heads of these flowers are a composite of many individual flowers tightly packed together. Other close relatives in the same family are the aster, Shasta daisy, feverfew and ox-eye daisy.

Love 'em tender. While garden mums are classified as perennials -- plants that die back to the roots in the autumn and grow back in the spring -- they might more accurately be called tender perennials. This is because mums need to be properly protected in the winter. Even then, like with roses, winter may take its toll. This is why it is advisable to give some protection around the base as winter approaches.

Yoder of Barberton, Ohio, is North America's largest mum grower, having produced every color of the rainbow except blue. Quite a long way from the "The Golden Flower of the Orient."

However, according to the authorities, yellow is still the top color in popularity with this favorite of all autumn flowers. According to Yoder, pink and lavender colors are quickly gaining in popularity. Bronze ranks third in best-selling colors, with white and reds in that order.

Yoder's list, according to popularity: Bravo, red; Debonair, lavender; Jessica, yellow; Sundora, wine; Grenadine, pink-lavender; Red Remarkable, red; Encore, white; then Target, Allure, Yellow Triumph, Anna, Legend, all shades of yellow; Emily, pink-lavender and Dark Triumph, pumpkin.

While chrysanthemum designs show up elsewhere in antiquity, no symbol of the mum is more widely know that the centuries-old crest of the Japanese royal family. Use of the 16-petal design outside is no longer a cause of death, as rumor says it once was, when the chrysanthemum was considered the sole possession of the emperor.

Chrysanthemum growing has become both an art form and a popular diversion to millions throughout Japan and the rest of the world.