By Margaret Carroll-Bergman — Correspondent
The 250th Pansy Project has taken root.
“It’s like the first time you’ve seen your daughter pregnant,” said a member of the Garden Club of Concord while entering the greenhouse at Colonial Gardens to check on the newly planted pansies.
The Garden Club is charged with planting pansies along the route the Patriots Day Parade will follow on Saturday, April 19, during the 250th anniversary celebration of “the shot heard round the world.”
Holly Cratsley and Faye Allen of the Concord250 subcommittee on Community Participation approached the Garden Club this fall about decorating the town’s center with the sturdy little flower.
“We had to move pretty quickly because the pansies had to be planted by the second week in December,” said Lauren Huyett, president of the Garden Club of Concord. “Our board met, we decided we wanted to do it, but we didn’t have any money left in the budget, because we already committed money to the Concord250 Trees Project.”
Before Huyett took the Pansy Project before the club’s board for a vote, she and club member Paula Casey went to all 53 shopkeepers along Main and Walden Streets in Concord Center to see if they would be interested in hosting the arrangement of red, white, and blue pansies in either window boxes or urns — and watering the plants.
‘A lot of enthusiasm’
“Almost everybody immediately said, ‘Yes,’ and wanted to be a part of it. There was a lot of enthusiasm right off the bat. It was great,” Huyett said.
Stores that don’t have window boxes or urns will be supplied with indoor arrangements of red and white geraniums provided by Seeds and Weeds Garden Club.
Concord250 also asked Seeds and Weeds and the West Concord Green Thumbs to help paint the town red, white, and blue.
Allen and Cratsley had a clear vision for what the arrangements would look like, but no funds to underwrite the project.
The money to pay for the flowers, an estimated $10,000, was raised by the Garden Club of Concord. Huyett sent an email to club members and donations started pouring in for the Pansy Project.
“It was just astounding. So many people said, ‘Let me know if you need more,’” said Huyett.
Seeds and Weeds will raise additional funds to pay for the geraniums, she said.
Seeds of liberty
“The colors are hard to find,” said Pam Nelson, the Garden Club’s public relations chair for the Pansy Project. “Red, white, and blue pansies [that match the colors of the American flag] aren’t grown in large quantities. We had to special-order them.”
The Garden Club asked Dave Giurleo, owner of Colonial Gardens, to grow the plants from seed. Giurleo estimated 900 pansies — 300 each of Matrix Blue Blotch, Matrix Scarlett, and Matrix White — would be required for the project.
In addition to pansies, the window boxes will feature vinca vines and a sprig of pussy willow.
The West Concord Green Thumbs will be continuing the patriotic theme in their gardens along Commonwealth Avenue and in their planters in Junction Park and Teacakes Plaza.
“We are also participating in the Patriots Day parade and will be dragging wagons of red, white, and blue pansies,” said Carlene Hempel, president of the West Concord Green Thumbs.
The window boxes and urns will be planted by the garden clubs on Thursday, April 10, at the Visitors Center, with a rain date of Friday, April 11. The pansies are expected to be in bloom through May.
