The King of mums is ending his reign.
For more than 40 years, Ted King has nurtured the landmark nursery that bears his name. Located 11 miles east of Highway 99 near Clements, King's Mums is known throughout the nation for its stunning variety of chrysanthemums, fall's favorite flower.
Each October and November, hundreds of mum lovers flock to King's to enjoy the display and purchase some pots for home. About 5,000 plants show off the incredible diversity of chrysanthemums in their many forms and colors, from the traditional puffy "football" mums to exotic specimens.
"We're the last one in the country catering totally to retail business," King said. "A lot of wholesale nurseries sell mums by the carload, but not like ours."
This month represents the grand finale for the family business. At age 88 and after four hip surgeries, King decided to sell his nursery.
"The whole operation is moving to Oregon," he said. "They'll keep up the name and the mail-order catalog. Most customers probably won't notice a difference."
But for those most loyal patrons of King's Mums, the sale is the end of an era.
"We want everyone to know: This is it," said Lanna King, Ted's daughter, who works for the family business. "After Nov. 30, this will all be gone. So if people want to come see us, they better do it now."
The King's legacy will live on long after the Clements nursery. A renowned hybridizer, Ted King has introduced close to 100 cultivars to the trade.
"We're probably better known on Long Island than in Stockton," Ted King quipped.
In particular, King's Mums is a treasured resource for exhibition stock worldwide. Mums, which date back about 2,500 years, are particularly popular in Asia, Australia and England.
For his efforts in spreading international appreciation of the flower, King received the 2008 Millett International Medal from the National Chrysanthemum Society.
For the first time in half a century, King missed the association's recent convention in Maryland due to September hip surgery. So national president Jim Hackett, who lives in Orangevale, presented the medal to King at his nursery.
"He's known throughout the world for his work with chrysanthemums," Hackett said. "He's the first American to win this award.
"His zeal for working with mums; it's hard to stop him," Hackett added.
King has visited Asia, Australia and Europe in the name of mums. Last year, he was a special guest in Xiaolan, China, for an international workshop hosted by the Chinese chrysanthemum association.
King's international reputation attracted the nursery's buyer, Sunset Flowers of New Zealand. Owned by Ray and Kim Gray, the company bought another small West Coast speciality nursery – Mary's Mums of Washington – and is consolidating operations in Oregon City, Ore., just south of Portland.
"The nursery was Ted's retirement project; now it's going to be mine," said Ray Gray, who after 20 years in the imported cut flower business is switching to mail-order mums.
Gray, 63, had heard about King's through Janet Foss, another mum nursery owner that he knew from the specialty cut flower trade.
Mums are growing fast on the Grays.
"We always appreciated them," Ray said of the flower. "When I was working for a wholesale florist in Portland right out of college, I remember opening box after box of football mums from California. I always had an interest in mums, but not the intensity."
When word of the sale leaked out, the Grays immediately heard pleas from throughout the mum-loving world about the future of King's.
"I got calls from the National Chrysanthemum Society," Ray said. "They wanted to be reassured. It's very heartening to see so many people who love their mums."
Said King of the sale, "It was a real big surprise; they just called up one day, and we were thinking of selling. It was a happy coincidence."
King, a native of Hayward, fell in love with mums as a young man at Oakland's Lakeside Park. While starting his own nursery spraying business, he became seriously interested in growing and exhibiting mums in the early 1950s. Eventually, his hobby became a side business, King's Mums.
Call The Bee's Debbie Arrington, (916) 321-1075.
