May flowers arrive

TUESDAY, MAY 19 — The lawn of the state Capitol is in full bloom following this morning’s annual Capitol Flower Planting Day event.

Despite temperatures in the 50s, the event gathered about 40 volunteers to work alongside Capitol event staff in sprucing up the lawn’s vacant flowerbeds.

“It’s very satisfying to me to plant, and then come back later and just see the beauty of the planting,” said volunteer Barb Saalfeld.

Saalfeld was one of multiple master gardeners from Michigan State University who worked alongside public employees and other volunteers.

“It’s a community coming together, and really feels like you’re giving back to Michigan,” said volunteer Agnes Drzal, who is also a master planter.

The 9,550 flowers (nearly 200 flats) now adorning the lawn were all donated by Kalamazoo Valley Plant Growers — something the growers’ association has done ever since the tradition began 22 years ago.

“We had flower beds traditionally when the Capitol came out, and we’ve just wanted to keep that going,” said Capitol Events Coordinator Barb Thumudo. “The carpet beds are historic in nature, so we wanted to add that feel to the building, keep something historic in our planting schemes.”

Different flowers and color schemes are chosen to decorate the lawn each year, but this summer’s display had a little extra something. Blooms of red, white and blue fill the flowerbeds in honor of the 150-year anniversary of the Civil War, as well as the permanent return of a display of Civil War cannons to the Capitol lawn later this summer.

After an early finish to their planting, volunteers were treated to a donated lunch and a Capitol tour. Drzal and the other volunteers were excited that they would get the chance to admire their work from the building’s balconies and windows.

“It’s a great feeling,” she said. “We’re going to go upstairs and see what it looks like from the fourth floor.”

After planning the event and planting from 8:30am to 10:30am, Thumudo was happy to see the gardens in good shape during her first planting season as the building’s event coordinator.

“Now that it’s done, it’s great. But it was pretty stressful in the beginning,” she said with a laugh.