"It’s not what it used to be.”

Chris Beytes

So says Karen Ann Schindler of fall and Thanksgiving mums. Karen and her brother, Gene Schneider, run G&E Greenhouses in Maple Park, Illinois. GrowerTalks stopped in recently to ask about the fall pot mum business and how it’s changed since her dad, the late Henry Schneider, ran the business.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Karen says of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, “but it seems [customers] skip over the mums and go straight to poinsettias.” Especially now that poinsettias are available by mid-November.

How many Thanksgiving mums are they selling now versus previous years? “Today, it’s maybe 300 or 400, as compared to back in the day, a couple thousand,” Karen says.

We asked if it was because there are fewer retail florists.

“I don’t think it’s that they’ve gone away, but they don’t do the volume that they used to. Dad used to talk about one florist taking 200 mums at a crack. Now, if they take a dozen, that’s a pretty good order. They don’t have the walk-in like they used to.”

We noted the variety Point Pelee on the bench. Its predecessor, Pelee, was introduced in 1992 by Yoder Brothers, and Point Pelee, a completely new variety, was introduced in 2006. According to Mark Smith, Syngenta’s mum technical specialist, both Pelee and Point Pelee are among their top 10 selling varieties, and “most likely” the top varieties for fall (he didn’t offer any numbers).

Mark says it was assumed that Point Pelee would replace Pelee, but that didn’t happen.

“What has happened is they both sell well for two different crop types,” he explains. “Growers or retailers interested in larger disbud flowers will request Pelee, and growers or retailers interested in the classic fall bicolor flowers without disbudding will use Point Pelee. There is still a market for both needs.”

As for Point Pelee’s popularity at G&E, Karen says, “I try different varieties now and then, but they always come back to old faithful.” GT