I suspect that if you live anywhere where autumn leaves are changing, this is as common a sight for you as it is for me. I can scarcely go anywhere without seeing masses of mums, either for sale or in some display somewhere.
If you have followed me for awhile, you know that I absolutely hate mums. There are just 2 things that I reserve the word “hate” for: winter and mums.
It’s pretty obvious why I hate winter–I won’t waste time on that now. But oddly, even I can’t decide why I hate mums. It may go back to my time in retail gardening (although if that were the case, I should hate violas and pelargonium too and I don’t). So I really am stumped.
And it’s not a question of hating all things autumn. I am fine with pumpkins and squash. I love these funky pumpkins. I don’t decorate with them. It’s a Spoiler thing. He doesn’t want to have to blow leaves around them.
And I am amazed by gourds and squash. This acorn squash, with its fluted shape, is almost too pretty to eat. Almost.
Does anyone else have an irrational hatred of something that they can’t figure out?
Gardendaze 
I hate them, too. They don’t last more than a couple of weeks and they require copious amounts of water.
Ah, the water thing. I hadn’t even touched on that. Yes, absolutely. And as for not lasting very long, it isn’t that that bothers me so much as the messy way they die. Once part of the plant starts to go, the whole thing needs to be composted.
Karla
Oh my! I happen to like chrysanthemums, but only if they actually look like chrysanthemum. Some are so full and fake looking that they may as well be fake. A well rounded specimen covered so thoroughly with orange bloom that all foliage is obscured looks like a basketball on a pot. I feel the same way about cycalmen. I enjoy growing them as perennials in my own garden, but otherwise hate how expensive and phony they are for such a short time, only to be discarded as annuals. I happen to like poinsettias (although I really can not figure that one out at all), but hate them when overdone, and we all know how they get overdone.
The only thing that I can figure is that I hate mums because they die badly. You’ll have that nice full plant and the next thing you know you have dead flowers intermingled with the living. And at first you can deadhead–for about 10 minutes. But if you want to keep the plant looking nice, it has to become your full time job. Oh no–not for me.
I adore cyclamen, but don’t do well with these fussy newer types. And I really adore poinsettia. I am going into my 3rd year with one that I took a particular liking to. It’s just mums that I have a “thing” about. Go figure.
Karla