Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990 TAG: 9004200212
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Markham, 61, and Baker, 64, are members of the Blue Ridge Chrysanthemum Society; Markham is also president of the National Chrysanthemum Society.
They are among the club's youngsters. The average age of 30 club members is in the upper 60s.
For years, interest in their hobby has dwindled, most acutely among younger people, and the club's membership has grown steadily grayer.
"We've had five or six members die in as many years," says Baker, of Blue Ridge. "But nobody seems to step in to take their place."
It is a trend that is not unique to mums - a cornucopia of flower clubs is feeling the same age pinch - and is not felt in Roanoke alone.
Since 1978, national club membership has plummeted from 3,500 members to 2,000.
"The club in West Virginia, I'm afraid, has gone down the drain," says Markham. "In Richmond, it's fading."
Two mum clubs remain in Roanoke, both for amateur growers, though their members come from hills and hollows all over Western Virginia.
Once, some prospective members' applications were turned away.
"Today, we beat the bushes for members," says Markham, of Southwest Roanoke.
"Younger people are not as interested," he says. "Both have to work. If they have children, that takes time. There's access to better travel. They don't stay at home, tending the mums."
Baker says: "They don't have the time."
"They don't make the time!" kicks in Markham quickly.
Time isn't much of a factor in growing mums. Now, in April, growers snip new growth from last year's plants and root them. A bit of pinching between May and July, some water if necessary, a spot of fertilizer, and the mums will bloom in autumn.
Many club members coddle blooms for the fall show, held the last weekend of October. They try to grow flowers big as a basketball, and to impress judges with symmetry and color.
Wilson Baker's competitive streak has cost non-mums dearly: "I have other flowers, but all I do is water 'em a coupla' times a summer. I mean, I do absolutely almost nothing with 'em."
The show, say the men, is the club's raison d'etre, and without it the mum club would collapse.
Still, the gaudy display grows more demanding with each year. Only about seven members try to produce show-quality flowers. The rest just want their home gardens to look nice.
"You like to have 100 to 300 entries at the show," says Baker. "that puts a big burden on the few who grow for the show. One year, I entered about 80. It damn near killed me."
"We've tried every way we know of to get the public interested. Maybe I'm a diehard but I still think there are people out there who would like to grow show flowers," says Baker.
Young people, that is, who will grow flowers that bloom in the fall of the year.
by CNB