Dig This: Our Community a More Colorful Place

Ralph Waldo Emerson said "The earth laughs in flowers".  When you pass a house with colorful flower gardens, it's hard not to notice the brightness and beauty the flowers offer. When I'm out walking my dog or driving around town and see a garden full of blooming flowers, I think about the pride a person has and the effort they have made to beautify their little part of our world and how great it is they're sharing that beauty with the rest of us. Now imagine an entire community with bright, beautiful flower gardens - in front yards, along streets, next to businesses. 

Think about the entrance at Dillon Nature Center or Carey Park on South Main. And have you noticed the big flower pots that the Hutchinson Parks Department staff has placed around town?  It doesn't have to be an elaborate garden, just one or two pots of flowers can add a spark to an otherwise plain view.  Planting flowers is such an easy way to add a little beauty and show some community pride.

At the Reno County Extension Office, our volunteer Master Gardeners have started promoting a program called "Our Community a More Colorful Place", encouraging residents and business to plant more flowers and beautify our community.  It is part of the Kansas PRIDE Program, sponsored by the Kansas Department of Commerce and K-State Research & Extension. PRIDE works with communities across the state to encourage and assist local government and volunteers in making their community a better place to live and work. They have found that one of the things a community can easily do to improve its appeal is to plant more flowers. You can read more about the PRIDE program at: www.kansasprideprogram.ksu.edu

Here in Kansas we have some pretty rough conditions for flower growing.  It's hot, it's wet, it's dry, it's crazy windy.  Because of this, one of our Extension researchers has been planting tens of thousands of flower varieties all over Kansas to find which ones not only survive, but thrive, even under "lazy gardener" care in our harsh midwest environment.   Those that make the cut become part of the Prairie Star Collection.  Prairie Stars are annual flowers that  have great vigor and spectacular blooms throughout the entire growing season - and are readily found in the retail garden centers.  They are tested for a minumum of two years and are graded on a scale of 1-7 for vigor and floriferousness.  They have to be above a 6 for both years to make the list, which is updated yearly.  The most recent up to date list and full color pictures of each flower can be found at www.prairiestarflowers.com .  If you want to see some Prairie Star plants live and in person, stop by the Reno County Extension Office in South Hutchinson where we have our demonstration garden behind the office.  Feel free to pull a few weeds while you're there.

And if you're out and about and someone's flowers catch your eye and you want to say "Wow! Thank you. Your flowers look great!  The flowers you plant help make this community a more enjoyable place to live", we have these really beautiful door hangers that say just that.  If you want a few to spread around and brighten some gardener's day, just drop me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and I'd be happy to send some out to you.

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Didn't your momma teach you to share? Share us.

Users' Comments (8)

Posted by Pam Lyle 07-31-2008 15:58, , Guest   This a great article. I love flowers, I love gardening - I have a very, very small yard. My husband took me to London and the main reason I went there was to see the "English" gardens. I love small, quaint flower gardens. I really, really admire yards and they don't have to be extravagant. I'm going to forward your article to Ron Emery, my grounds supervisor at Wesley Towers, as he's great with flowers and loves all this kind of information - probably already works with your people. I would love some of your door hangers and would have a blast handing them out! I want to see your little garden in the back so I'll get by your office! Thanks for the great information!I find I can never learn enough about this kind of stuff!   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by sarah 07-31-2008 21:59, , Guest   Pam-thanks for the great tips and resources! I gave our neighbor the door hanger I got from you.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Rachel 08-01-2008 09:51, , Guest   Too true! I love all of the flowers on Main Street! They truly make a huge difference. And thanks for teaching me a new word today....floriferousness....lo ve it! I'm going to try to use it today.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Josie 08-01-2008 10:39, , Registered   Great article! I am not just a lazy gardner but seem to kill all plants. When I moved into my home I discovered there were moon flowers already planted. I didn't know what they were at the time but LOVE them! They thrive in the hot sun and it is really neat to see the white blooms pop open in the evening plus the smell is wonderful! It is a great perennial flower with little maintenance (except trying to keep it from spreading over the entire lawn).     I do have to give kudos to the master gardeners. My friend and I were at Allie's the other day for lunch and were commenting on how beautiful the landscaping is downtown. Keep up the good work!     Oh, and if anyone needs a project - feel free to come plant some flowers in my yard! I will gladly let anyone experiment in my flower beds!   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Pam P 08-01-2008 20:59, , Guest   I wish our Master Gardeners could take credit for all the great plantings downtown, but we can't. That's all been Jeremy Lindahl and the City Parks staff that's done that. I know that even photo-man Bob has had his fingers in the soil of the downtown flower beds.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by goforit4 08-02-2008 23:24, , Registered   I agree, Jeremy and the city park staff have done a great job. If you ask Jeremy I think he would tell you that they did have volunteer help planting from 15 determined volunteers from The Volunteer Center and RSVP on one very cold and windy April day.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Bob Hunter 08-13-2008 18:08, , Guest   I came home from work today and had a door hanger from your group. I have some flower pots and91 grass that always needs mowed. I think this is a great program and thanks for leaving the hanger.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Pam P 08-13-2008 18:54, , Registered   Bob - how funny - some of the MGs and I spent the morning driving around town and leaving the door hangers wherever we saw flowers. I wondered if we would know any of the residents. We met some really neat people today. One house was an older couple and said they had just gotten back from a not so good Dr. appt. and said we made their day much brighter. One house was a little boy who had to tell us all about his helping to plant their flowers. Hopefully we made some folks happy because it sure made us happy to leave them.    And an aside - I sent you an email about a tree order - but the MGs have enjoyed working with the tree removal crews. They've been bringing the guys on the crews tomatoes, zucchini and cookies - and said they've enjoyed meeting everyone around town.   » Reply to this comment...

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