Peace Garden Prepares for Planting Season
North Dakota`s largest flower garden covers over 2,000 acres and blooms in two countries. Planting thousands of petunias, geraniums, marigolds and violets in the International Peace Garden takes months of planning and preparation before a single seedling is put into the ground.
Back in the middle of January, when snow still blanketed North Dakota, Connie Lagerquist and her staff began preparing for the day they could cover the International Peace Garden with bedding plants.
"This is where North Dakota`s largest flower garden gets started, while everything is white outside and we`re under 10 inches to 12 inches of snow in some places, I`m busy in here getting the seeds started," said Lagerquist.
Thousands of flowers that will be planted after Memorial Day begin growing in three huge greenhouses during the winter and spring.
Mary Jablonski said: "It`s nice to watch the plants start out as a little seedling and get bigger.
Jablonski helps nurture hundreds of varieties of flowers into mature plants, waiting patiently for the weather to warm up so they can be taken outside and transplanted.
"I`ve got eight different varieties of rudbeckia this year. I`m sure I`ll have six different varieties of petunias. Marigolds, there will be at lease six, seven different varieties of that," explained Lagerquist.
As the staff horticulturist for the Peace Gardens, Lagerquist is in charge of selecting the quantities and kinds of plants that cover over three miles of North Dakota and Canadian province of Manitoba.
"Some days it`s an overwhelming responsibility," she added.
By the end of May, all the pre-planting preparation will be completed and it will be warm enough to move mature flowers outside.
Lagerquist said, "We`ve tried planting before Memorial Day but it always comes back to haunt us where we have to do a lot of covering or we end up digging them up and bringing them back into the green house.
After May 31, a crew of 10 gardeners will plant over 100,000 flowers in just two-week`s time.
"I like planting the annual beds the best, I think you get instant color, it`s nice," said Jablonski.
Until then, this crew of plant specialists will continue to groom the thousands flowers that will grow into a prodigious plantation on the prairie this summer.
If you have never been to the International Peace Garden and would like to see what all those flowers look like in bloom, log onto peacegarden.com. COMMENT ON THIS STORY
BACK TO NEWS | BACK TO REGIONAL STORIES
Share Story
View the original article here
Related Articles:
-
NCAA North Dakota State University Cycling Jersey by Adrenaline Buy new: $79.95 - $79.99 (Visit... Read Full Story » -
NCAA University of North Dakota State Cycling Jersey by Adrenaline Buy new: $79.95 - $79.99... Read Full Story » -
Austin Pennick is a basketball player for the North Dakota State Bison. He is a guard, standing 6... Read Full Story »
Comments
