BARBERTON, Ohio — Thirty-one years ago, the city of Barberton hosted its first mum festival, and ever since it has been a staple in welcoming fall for those in northeast Ohio.

Bob Humm has been volunteering his time at the annual festival for decades. 

Each year, the flowers are a different design and this years theme is paradise-mum style. 

"It's almost a year (in advance) that we have to sit down an plan this," Humm explained. "After this is over, we will already have some ideas for what didn’t work and we need to look at what varieties did work." 

They plant around 17,000 mums to make up the designs. Once the festival is over, what happens to these flowers might surprise you.

"All of these plants will be dug up and hauled to the trash," he said. "We don’t wanna keep them in the soil and loose soil. We don't want to keep them in the beds for disease because we have to plant every year."

The festival takes places every year on the last weekend of September.