Colorful Chrysanthemum Shrubs Delight Visitors in Fukushima Pref.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:18 JST, November 10, 2023

Visitors stroll among approximately 3,500 shrubs of chrysanthemums at the Kiku no Sato Tokiwa chrysanthemum park in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture. The flowering plants are nicknamed “zarugiku” (bamboo basket chrysanthemums) because their round shape makes them look like upside-down bamboo baskets. Each shrub can grow several thousand small flowers. Yellow, pink and other colored flowers are grown in a field of about 0.8 hectares by 73-year-old local farmer Buichi Watanabe. He has been planting them since 2013 in a farm field that had been unused since the 2011 disaster at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant which was operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. The flowers will remain at the height of their viewing potential until around Nov. 20.