Program encourages planting red geraniums
Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 10, 2008
By Sarah Stultz, staff writer
Bloom where you&8217;re planted.
That&8217;s the message several local organizations are trying to spread this Mother&8217;s Day.
In a project sponsored by the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, the Albert Lea Farmers Market, Oak Park Place, Destination Albert Lea, Land Between the Lakes, and the Downtown Association, every home and business owner in Albert Lea is encouraged to plant a red geranium in their front yards this spring and summer to help unite the city and make it beautiful.
&8220;The whole message for our town is that everybody needs to bloom wherever they are in life,&8221; said Joyce Nixon of Oak Park Place, who came up with the idea. And what better time to do that than Mother&8217;s Day?
The hope is that soon the red geranium will become Albert Lea&8217;s flower and that every time someone comes into the city from out of town, they&8217;ll see all of the flowers and think, &8220;There must be something going on here,&8221; said Karen Trow, chairwoman of the Appearance and Attitude committee of the Land Between the Lakes Action Team.
Albert Lea Medical Center has already jumped aboard and will plant all red geraniums near its facility. There will also be red geraniums planted near the Farmers Market and the Freeborn County Fairgrounds, and the Chamber has agreed to plant some as well.
&8220;We&8217;re just encouraging all the people in town &8212; all the businesses &8212; to participate and take pride in their community,&8221; Trow said.
Nixon brought up the idea two or three years ago and implemented it with her residents at Oak Park Place. However, it wasn&8217;t until recently that the idea took off on a larger scale.
&8220;Isn&8217;t this neat that Albert Lea can have a flower and can build off of it every year,&8221; she asked.
Every time a new family moves into the area or a young mom has a baby, they could be given a red geranium, Nixon said. People could even buy their mothers a red geranium each Mother&8217;s Day.
Then soon enough, it will just become habit to involve the flower into everyday life.
The project kicked off the end of April when 210 geraniums were given out to students at the local elementary schools. Flowers went to fifth-graders at Hawthorne Elementary School and first- and second-graders at Sibley, Halverson and Lakeview elementary schools.
Each individual geranium had a &8220;Bloom Where You&8217;re Planted&8221; card planter to help spread the word of the project.
Since, the children have nourished the plants in their classrooms, and then they will be giving the red geraniums to their mothers today.
Trow said she hopes the idea takes off so that maybe by next year, Albert Lea might be able to enter the America in Bloom contest.
Since 2001, America in Bloom has helped more than 150 communities from across the United States improve quality of life by promoting beautification programs and community involvement through the use of flowers, plants, trees and other environmental and lifestyle enhancements.
Though &8220;Bloom Where You&8217;re Planted&8221; has started off small, organizers hope it will help Albert Lea blossom into something huge.
Red geraniums will be available at the following locations:
Albert Lea Farmers Market
Hill&8217;s Garden
Hilltop Greenhouse
Hy-Vee Garden Center
Home Depot Garden Center
Plaza Landscaping and Garden Center
ShopKo
Wal-Mart