Mums are an iconic autumn flower, but did you know there are thousands of different types and mums can survive the winter? Here are some that will stay beautiful this autumn and keep coming back year after year.

Nothing says autumn quite like chrysanthemums. They are so ubiquitous, most people just call them "mums" and know exactly where to find them. There's a lot to love about these autumn stunners. Chrysanthemums are completely covered in blooms for weeks, stay colorful despite frosts and freezes, and have so many gorgeous fall colors. Plus, they are so easy to find!

If you thought these common flowers are boring, you probably didn't know that there are thousands of different types of mums and 13 unique flower shapes. These plants are diverse, and there's an entire society dedicated to it. Even gardeners looking for something unique in their gardens this time of the year will fall in love with mums when they see how incredible these blooms are.

The mums you see for sale at most stores right now are known as "garden" or "florist" mums. They're treated like annuals (enjoy them now and then toss them), but are actually perennials (they'll come back after winter). These are very easy plants to grow, but a lot of people make the same mistakes:

Even though you can't go down a street without seeing a few mums on a porch this time of the year, most of us would never recognize some of the more unusual chrysanthemum varieties. There are more than 1,000 different cultivars and 13 unique flower classifications ranging from "smaller than a button" to "the size of a CD." These flowers are so diverse that there's an entire local society dedicated to their care and education.

In this week's Garden Guide, I visited John Capobianco, the president of the Long Island Chrysanthemum Society. John has been growing these plants for more than 30 years. He's an expert in chrysanthemums and has hundreds of different varieties.

John showed me the diversity of the flowers. Spider mums were one of my favorites. These threadlike flowers have petals that curve inward like a spider's legs and burst out like fireworks. It's impossible to compare them to any other flower.

Anemone flowers have a gorgeous center that looks like a pom-pom framed by outside petals. John describes them as "snow cones". The flowers can be as large as a CD or as small as a button. They come in every color imaginable, except for blue - a rare flower color.

The secret to growing large chrysanthemum flowers is to prune off most of the flower buds. To prepare for chrysanthemum flower shows, John cuts off all the flower buds growing along each stem - leaving just one on the top of the stem for the plant to devote all its energy to.

Chrysanthemums have a phodoperidic response, with means they will bloom as soon as they start to notice the days are getting shorter. This makes them one of the most versatile flowers in the plant world. Florists can easily force these plants to bloom any time of the year by simply reducing the amount of light they get. Outside, these plants will typically start to bud in August when day length is around 13 hours.

It's not just the variety of mums that make John's collection so special, he's also growing them in really fascinating ways. One display has mums trained as bonsai. Unlike typical bonsai trees, which can take decades to get their shape, John has been able to grow these mini-chrysanthemum trees in a single growing season. However, that doesn't mean growing chrysanthemum bonsai is an easy feat. These plants need to be pruned enough to keep their shape, but not too much so that they don't grow flower buds. It's a difficult balance that comes with decades of experience.

The Long Island Chrysanthemum Society is celebrating it's 70th Annual Chrysanthemum show at Starkie Bros Garden Center in Farmingdale on Saturday, Nov. 1 and Sunday, Nov. 2. John is actually training two of his chrysanthemum plants to read "7" and "0" in honor of the show. You'll be able to see that on display and so much more. Admission is free!