The final Flower Show of the year celebrates the warmth of autumn
Right Track apprentice Willow Stephens grew up coming to Como, where the Sunken Garden once played host to a family wedding. This season’s show features her favorite flower—celosias “pampas plume”—as a supporting player.
A long-running design trend in fashion, hair, and homewares, the ombre pattern is now making its horticultural debut in the Sunken Garden, where waves of yellow, gold, pink, and purple chrysanthemums ripple against the room’s reflecting pool.
“The theme we were going for was ‘sunset on the water,’” says Willow Stephens, the Right Track horticultural apprentice who co-designed the show along with Como horticulturist Rylee Werden. “The white mums at the end of the pool represent the bright sun, and then you see the colors around it fade away, yellow to orange, pink to purple.”
An autumn tradition for more than a century, designing the Fall Flower Show at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory is a cool project for any young horticulturist to have on their resume. But this season’s display is extra special—it will be the last shot of color in the Sunken Garden before it closes for renovations that will make the historic room more accessible to visitors with strollers, wheelchairs, and other mobility challenges. While it’s under construction, Como’s horticulturists, and an event and display company are planning a poinsettia display for the Visitor Center porch.
“There’s never a great time to close any corner of Como, particularly a garden that visitors love as much as the Sunken Garden,” says Como Campus Director Michelle Furrer. “While we won’t be able to experience the Holiday Flower Show, we are planning a special exhibition, Winter’s Blooming Wonderland, that includes the traditional poinsettias on the Visitor Center Porch.”
That’s why horticulturists came up with a particularly colorful plan for this season’s two-part flower show. Following the sunset theme, which runs through October 27, the second half takes its inspiration from the color palette of Como Zoo’s lions, Mumford and Maji, and will run from November 1 through 16.
In addition to traditional mums, Werden says visitors will see her favorite plant, the viola “antique shades,” and many other vibrant supporting players. “The cooler temperatures and shorter days do restrict the types of plants that we can select, but we’ve chosen some that give the room a nice fall feel—chard and kale, marigolds, millet, and grasses all look great with these mums.”
“We’re really excited about having a room that’s more accessible, and that more people can appreciate,” says Werden. “And one thing we really like is that these changes will even create a little more space for garden beds.”
Symbolizing joy, luck, friendship, and rebirth, chrysanthemums have been the centerpiece of the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s fall flower shows since 2015. This year’s show highlights the versatility of mums by featuring the same plant side by side—one in the traditional shape, the other pruned back to create a show-stopping central bloom.
To keep all of these plants healthy, Werden recently released hundreds of lacewings into the Sunken Garden. These tiny but mighty beneficial bugs can help protect chrysanthemums from pests known as “thrips,” and the potentially deadly viruses they carry. The Integrated Pest Management program was funded in 2024 by your support to Como Friends. Thank you!
Watch your inbox for a Como Friends’ invitation to a special donor preview of Winter’s Blooming Wonderland, which will be on display in Como’s Visitor Center porch in December. Sign up here.
Fall Sunken Flower Show plant list: Celosia, Yarrow, Viola, Kale, Marigold, Swiss Chard, Dusty Miller, Coleus, Black Eyed Susan, Millet, Aster, Amaranth, a variety of Sunflowers, Ornamental Peppers and Kale, and Pennisetum
