Friday’s homecoming crowd will be able to watch two competitions. The gridiron contest between Rockdale and Troy high schools and the bleacher battle between RHS girls, who will be vying for the most original homecoming mum of the night. The best part is that people don’t need to be season ticket holders to get the best view. The mum rivalry will unfold itself in the seat next.
Andrea Ruiz, a ninth grader at Rock-dale High School, who will be attending homecoming with her boyfriend, said she wants a mum that will wow her friends at the game and at school. “This will be the first year I’m going,” she said. “My friends are going to see who’s mum is cutest and coolest.”
Part of that entails sporting a one-of-kind look, having both names on the ribbons, and being Instagram-able, she said.
“I’d like to have a rose as a flower, a lot of different colored ribbons with both our names,” she said.
She wants to be able to snap of photo of both them with their homecoming paraphernalia, if her boyfriend doesn’t consider wearing his garter too feminine, she said.
When it comes to homecoming mums in Rockdale bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Milam County residents want something out of the ordinary, according to local fl orists.
“People in Rockdale are looking for something different,” said Cindy Cates, owner of Tisket-a-Tasket and the Flower Shop. “They don’t want anyone else to have a mum like theirs.”
Cates, who has been creating mums for Rockdale residents for 15 years, has fashioned this year’s mums with sunflowers, burlap and daisies, so that no two are alike.
“We getting away from the colorful ribbons and moving toward more traditional colors,” she said.
Elizabeth Pedroza, a senior at Milano High School, cringed at the thought of a large over-the-top sized homecoming mum.
“I just want a regular, not huge, mum, because I mean it’s kind of like...” she found a nicer way to explain. “A lot of people just want a traditional sized mum.”
History
The NCAA recognizes the University of Missouri as the official place of birth of homecoming, according to The Mum Shop in Plano Texas. This tradition began in 1911, but giving a chrysanthemum corsage to a homecoming date began in Texas.
In the 1950s, boys started buying chrysanthemum corsages for their dates for homecoming, according to Garden Design Magazine. These single chrysanthemums were decorated with ribbons. It wasn’t until the trend hit the Lone Star state that the single flower tradition blossomed into an industry of Texas-sized proportions.
Michelle Barcak, who creates mums at Charming Blossoms and Boutique, said people in Dallas shell out $500 for mums.
“How big can you make them hasn’t been a trend here,” she said. “Up in Dallas they have feathers, lights and music. My friends in Dallas had some that had handles—the bigger the better.”
Rockdale hasn’t caught on to the trend.
“Big hasn’t been a thing here,” Barcak said. “A lot of what’s popular is vintage look. People like burlap, simple but different.”
The homecoming mum is specific to Texas, Cates said.
“If you go outside of Texas and tell people you want a mum, people won’t know what you’re talking about,” Cates said.
Process
Shops like Charming Blossoms and Tisket-a-Tasket start ordering supplies in June and July. They have to forecast fall trends.
“We start in the summer looking at trends and trying to predict what will be popular,” Barcak said. “We buy a lot of blue, gold, white ribbon.”
Cates starts cutting ribbons for mums and garters in July.
“Once we get all the ribbons cut, then we start putting them together,” she said. “We get all our bases together and once we have good count (about 100), we start decorating.”
This is the step that can be the difference between a $12 and $60 mum — the more trinkets, the more costly the corsage.
This is the first year Classy Crown Embroidery, Boutique and Gift Shop starting selling mums, but Lori Baggerly has been making them at home for her own children since the early 2000s. She said, it’s cheaper to buy mums from a florist or shop.
“If you do them at home, you’re really going to pay more,” she said. “You can spend up to $200 just for the ribbon, if you don’t have a wholesaler discount and that’s not including the trinkets.“ Those add-ons are what help make the mum original, said Pedroza, who is part of the MHS floral design class that made homecoming mums for students in Milano.
“We customize mums with their name or their monogram,” she said.
Pedroza personalized the mum she wore to homecoming with, “glitter and glitter spray. I found other pieces to add, cute streamers and accents like cowbells.”
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