The thousand bloom chrysanthemum display

In the last post I introduced what a chrysanthemum festival is. In this post, I will introduce one type of chrysanthemum display that you can see at most chrysanthemum festivals around Japan. It is often the centerpiece of the festival. It is called "senrin-zaki" in Japanese and most often "thousand bloom chrysanthemum" in English. It is a refined variation of an older style called "ozukuri". 

The Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum 

When you go along to a Chrysanthemum Festival and see a display like the one pictured, you think gorgeous, right? But when you hear how this display is made, you will appreciate it even more. It is mindblowing. The flowers you see on the dome shape are all from the one seedling. 

The flower is meticulously trained to produce hundreds of flowers in a dome or "thousand bloom" shape. This advanced horticultural technique, which requires pinching, trimming and tying the plant, allows them to take a few branches out of one stem and bud pick them. They do it over and over again until it makes a semicircle sphere. All the while manipulating light and other environmental factors. The result is a seriously impressive, symmetrical dome of flowers. It takes about 11 months to create it. 

Have you seen a 'thousand bloom chrysanthemum' at a chrysanthemum festival? Did you know that all the flowers come from the one stem?

The senrin-zaki thousand bloom chrysanthemum in this photo was taken at the Koedo Kawagoe Chrysanthemum Festival.