Allie Wornell ’25 Designs Smith’s Final Chrysanthemum Show

This year’s Fall Chrysanthemum Show will be unlike any other in Smith’s history. 

The botanic garden has put the show on annually for over a century, dating back to the early 1900s, and there will be one final display in 2024 before it is discontinued. For this last show, Allie Wornell ‘25 was given the opportunity to help Greenhouse Horticulturist Dan Babineau, who manages the annual mum show, design the layout of the floral showcase. This is the first time a student has taken on this role at the botanic garden.

Wornell says the support they have received from the staff at the botanic garden has been invaluable to their process while they work on the show. 

“[The botanic garden staff] have been amazing. Anytime I express an interest in learning more about something or getting more involved, they make such an effort to allow me to do so,” they said. “Especially with the mum show, they’ve been so generous in allowing me to design the last one.” 

“Last spring, Allie began assisting Greenhouse Horticulturist Lily Carone plan the 2025 bulb show, thinking about distributions of colors and forms as the 2024 summer bulb order took shape,” said Conservatory Curator Jimmy Grogan. “At the beginning of this semester, Allie approached Dan about sharing design and implementation responsibilities of the mum show as well. He offered Allie the opportunity to be in charge, and Allie ran with it!“ 

Grogan has worked with Wornell since they first got involved with the botanic garden, and has supported them—along with Carone and Babineau—in their role in designing the mum show. 

“Sometimes our student greenhouse assistants, who are the essential ingredient to making Lyman Plant House sparkle, bring exceptional work ethic, focus, and creativity to their daily rounds here,” said Grogan. “That describes Allie to a capital T!”

Wornell has been involved in the botanic garden since their first year at Smith, when they took Gaby Immerman’s BIO123: Botany for Gardeners course. They have since gone on to do a summer internship, work as a BoGSE, and finally during their junior and senior years, take on the position of conservatory assistant. 

“After my summer doing the horticulture internship at Smith, it was solidified in my head that I wanted to continue,” Wornell said. “Working with my hands has always been something that I’ve really enjoyed, I think that’s where most of my skill lies. I just enjoy being outside so much.” 

Throughout their various experiences with different aspects of the botanic garden, Wornell has discovered and cultivated their love for horticulture and landscaping. They say it was during their second horticulture internship, at the Arnold Arboretum, that they realized exactly what they wanted to do with their life. 

“It was that summer that I was like, ‘It’s 100%, I want to continue this for the rest of my life,’” they said. “I didn’t have one single bad day–I even got stung by two bald-faced hornets, and I was still happy. I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t think I can find something better than this.’”

Wornell plans to receive a master's in landscape architecture before pursuing a career in horticulture and landscape design. They hope to eventually work at a design-and-build firm. Wornell figured that the best place to practice and prepare for that future was at the botanic garden–and more specifically, with the Fall Mum Show.  

“I’m just obsessed with the chrysanthemum show–I love chrysanthemums,” Wornell said. “There’s such a deep history. We started cultivating them like 3,500 years ago, it’s kind of insane. Every culture has its own symbolic meanings behind chrysanthemums, especially Japan and China have a really interesting relationship with the plant.” 

“This show is one of the very few, unique opportunities to really test my design abilities,” Wornell continued. 

Since taking on the responsibility of aiding in the design and set-up of the show, Wornell has put everything they have learned over the past four years at the botanic garden to use, experimenting with plant and object placement to find the perfect arrangement for the show. 

“I wanted to emphasize the benches because those are a big part of Smith’s history, and I think there’s even a photo of Sylvia Plath with one of them, so that’s pretty fun,” Wornell said. “I wanted to make it truly a space where people could sit, so we’ve set up the two benches in a way where you can just sit, read, maybe do some studying.” 

While designing the show is as overwhelming for Wornell as it is exciting, they know that no matter what the outcome of this last project is, the show will be a successful end of a longstanding tradition for Smith and the botanic garden community.

“The mums are beautiful by themselves,” they said. “You can’t go wrong. But, it is very nerve-wracking. It feels like I’m an adult.” 

Despite the striking momentousness of the occasion, Wornell is ultimately looking forward to seeing the results of their work on display at the show. Since the last mum show coincides with Wornell’s last year at Smith, it brings everything to a very fitting end. 

“It’s kind of the perfect wrap-up,” Wornell said. “It feels very significant to my relationship with the botanic garden.” 

The show will take place between Nov. 2-17, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM daily, featuring additional extended hours on Fridays (Nov. 8 and 15) until 8:00 PM and members-only hours from 9:00 AM to 10 AM daily.