hi,

i am pretty new to gardening and this is my first year messing with flowers at all. last fall i planted some really pretty chrysanthemums near my front door. this year they came back, grew normally and flowered. but the flowers are not pretty. i think the color is off, though I can't remember what color they were. they are sort of a rust color. also, there are strange white lumps, maybe the size of a ball-point pen tip, at the bottom of the stems. i haven't noticed anything unusual on the leaves. is this normal? is something wrong? can anything be done to improve the flower color, if not for this year then for next year?

tia!