Are homecoming mums only in Texas?

No. But it’s complicated.

First Wave

The concept of “homecoming” football games first emerged in the early 1900s, an idea that quickly spread across the United States. This was an era driven by dating etiquette, so a young man was expected to give his date a corsage when he took her to a social occasion, particularly if it involved a dance. Chrysanthemums were popular and plentiful in the fall, football was played in the fall, and eventually, football homecomings at both the college and high school levels almost always involved a dance. The result? Chrysanthemums became the most popular flower for homecoming corsages all across the United States.

According to the National Chrysanthemum Society, during much of the mid-twentieth century, chrysanthemums were the largest commercially produced flower in the United States. They organization itself credited this to the nationwide popularity of live “mums” as the preferred flower for homecoming corsages.

Visit Mumentous on TikTok to see a timelapse about the evolution of mums, or read the blog entitled, History of Homecoming Mums: The OG is a Chrysanthemum >

The Split

I think it’s important to note that, at this point in time, giving a girl a homecoming mum didn’t take much effort. The boy or his mother would go to a florist and order a homecoming corsage for whatever high school they attended. He didn’t have to specify anything else, because the florist knew to make it out of a chrysanthemum and ribbons in the school’s colors. The boy would pick up the corsage on the day of the game, and give it to the girl when he picked her up for their date. Period.

Starting in the 1960s, the secret sauce in Texas began to slowly work its magic on what a homecoming mum could be. Over the course of just a few decades, silk mums overcame live ones as the first-choice homecoming flower.

Meanwhile, in the other 49 states, live chrysanthemums continued to be understood as the one and only traditional homecoming corsage flower. While I haven’t conducted extensive research on the status of homecoming mums everywhere else but Texas, I can tell you that things began to change in the latter part of the 20th century. Dating conventions started to become less formal, and chrysanthemum flowers became less fashionable as other more delicate flowers, such as orchids, became more readily available. The homecoming corsage made out of a live chrysanthemum began to wane.

My own family confirms this. I have family members who live in Connecticut, Washington, New York, Michigan, Hawaii, Florida, California, and Iowa. Except for my parents (who grew up in Michigan during the mum hey-day), none of my relatives had even heard of chrysanthemums as the traditional homecoming corsage flower until I told them about it.

But my Texas relatives know ALL about the homecoming mum tradition in their state.

What’s Old is New Again

Mum from Santa Teresa High School in New Mexico. Source: Pinterest

What about today? When Aristotle said, “nature abhors a vacuum,” I doubt he was envisioning homecoming mums as an invasive species, and yet now Texas-style mums are spreading to other states.

How? As always, it’s complicated. Sure, the border-free reach of social media helps fertilize this trend. But as in most things, the real influence is more grass-roots: enthusiastic Texas transplants and professional mum-makers.

“While most of my customers live in our area, I’ve shipped mums to people all over the world,” a mum-maker from Frisco, TX told me. “I’ve sent mums to Oklahoma, Louisiana, and China. Mums are big in New Mexico. I’ve sent mums to military families stationed abroad. I’ve sent mums to moms who want to introduce a new tradition at their kid’s school; moms who want their kids to stand out; and moms who don’t want their kids to miss out on the fun just because the family lives somewhere other than Texas.”

“I grew up in Alabama in the ’80s,” a Texas mom told me, “where homecoming corsages made of live chrysanthemum flowers used to be a long-standing tradition. They’ve since faded away. My sister still lives there, and she tells me mums are back, but now they’re Texas-style.”

Eye-witness sightings of Texas-style mums. Have you seen them elsewhere? Leave your sightings in the comments!

A particularly fun fact is the locals outside of Texas don’t often recognize that these “new” mums grew from the same family tree as the one their great-grandfathers gave to their high school sweethearts.

But then again, a lot of Texas kids don’t know that either.