FLORAL PICTURES (Chrysanthemum)

One of my favorite flowers are chrysanthemums (mums) given as a slang in the early 90's. I like this flowers they look soo happy or convey a feeling of happiness... another is because they give a feeling of friendliness. Chrysanthemums were cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BCE. An ancient Chinese city was named Ju-Xian, meaning "chrysanthemum city". The flower was introduced into Japan probably in the 8th century CE, and the Emperor adopted the flower as his official seal. There is a "Festival of Happiness" in Japan that celebrates the flower.

The flower was brought to Europe in the 17th century. Linnaeus named it from the Greek prefix chrys-, which means golden (the colour of the original flowers), and -anthemon, meaning flower. Surprisingly chrysanthemums are not just beautiful flowers for ornaments, but the flowers are also used to make very nice tea. Yes they make very good tea, I personally love chrysanthemum tea.

Yellow or white chrysanthemum flowers are boiled to make a sweet drink in some parts of Asia. The resulting beverage is known simply as "chrysanthemum tea" (菊花茶, pinyin: jú huā chá, in Chinese). Chrysanthemum tea has many medicinal uses, including an aid in recovery from influenza. In Korea, a rice wine flavored with chrysanthemum flowers is called gukhwaju (국화주). The leaves of several species such as Chrysanthemum coronarium, the Garland chrysanthemum, which is grown commercially in East Asia as a leaf vegetable, known as tung ho (Chinese: 茼蒿; pinyin: tónghāo), shungiku (Japanese: 春菊[シュンギク]) or ssukkat (Korean: 쑥갓). In China, the greens are often stir-fried simply with garlic and dried chili peppers. The colour of the cooked greens is dark, their texture dense and mucilaginous, and their flavour fragrant and complex.

Chrysanthemums around the house, is a natural insect repellant to mosquitoes, not only do they brighten one's surroundings but keeps the little insect irritants away ;)

... my favorite is the yellow mums... white ones are nice too...they kinda remind you of daisies.