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| Chrysanthemum |
Chrysanthemum
Scorpio
Collaboration, Completeness
Also known as Mums, Chrysanthemums are fall-blooming flowers. In many locations, they begin forming buds when the days shorten to about 10 hours of daylight, with flowers opening six to ten weeks later. A hard frost brings the blooming season to an end. Native to Asia and northeastern Europe, chrysanthemums have been cultivated for centuries for gardens, floral arrangements, traditional celebrations, food and herbal preparations.
The behavior of this fall-blooming flower brings us the energies of collaboration, cooperation and completeness. Chrysanthemums work in collaboration with the natural cycles of sunlight, producing color throughout the fall season. If you are drawn to chrysanthemums, you have an awareness of your natural cycles and find yourself more creative and productive in the fall. While many people thrive in summer, fall is when you flourish. You may be the one with original ideas, but others also look to you for your ideas, skills and ability to contribute to shared projects. You work well with others, bringing ideas together through cooperation and collaboration.
Completeness represents projects coming to a close, allowing you to look forward to what comes next. It also represents the transition from a present to a state of completion. In this way, completeness carries the promise of new beginnings. The fall blooming season symbolizes maturity in the cycle of life.
The lengthy sunlit days needed to begin flowers blooming is symbolic of the time spent learning a trade, honing skills to proficiency or performing a job to the point where one has achieved a number of life goals, such as working at a stable job and having a stable home, family or circle of friends. It represents the jumping off point to levels of higher satisfaction reached through collaboration and cooperation with work associates, with family and with one's spirituality or spirit. It carries the satisfaction of reaching a plateau, of perceiving that one doesn't have to work so hard to achieve goals, and of the ability to have a more balanced perspective that events in your life all happen as life reflection and to your benefit.
These perennial plants grow in a range from under 1 foot to up to 6 feet and are from 1 inch in diameter to 3 inches showing a remarkable range of diversity. The flowers bloom in white and many shades of red, pink, orange, yellow and purple. Some varieties are bi- and tricolor. As the flowers can mix colors, you can mix ideas and concepts into cohesive plans.
Chrysanthemums originated in Asia and are now grown worldwide. The flowers are edible. Flowers and leaves are used in Chinese medicine for reducing fever and other uses. The flower has also been studied and is sometimes used for anti-inflammatory purposes. Dried flowers have been used to make tea.
Chrysanthemums can be propagated from seed. New plants are fairly easy to start from cuttings, suggesting that even as the plant represents maturity in the cycle of life, so also does it show us new beginnings.
