Blunt needs adopter in ‘Bloom’ sequel

       Springs in Bloom “took root last year and is ready to blossom in 2005,” according to Caitlin Green of Colorado Springs Public Communications.
       The program, in which volunteers planted and tended flowers in city parks last summer, includes beds at Thorndale and Blunt parks on the Westside. A big difference this year will be the city paying for the estimated 130,000 plants that will be needed - thanks to $60,000 that was restored to the city's greenhouse budget, Green said.
       This is good news for the Family and Friends of Genny, which had spent about $600 for some 892 flowers at the Thorndale plot in 2004 and had already signed on to do it again this year, according to Lee Gray. Gray and her daughter, Karen Sucharski, led last year's effort in memory of Sucharski's daughter, Genny, who had died in an auto accident in 2000.
       “It was a very therapeutic thing for the family,” Gray said.
       No group has stepped forward yet to take on the smaller garden at Blunt Park, which holds about 160 flowers. Last year, the planting and tending were handled by Girl Scout Troop 95 of Security.
       Volunteers for flower beds need to register by April 1, Green said.
       Plants are scheduled to go in this year between the third week of May and the first week of June, according to Annelle Marshall, the city's horticulturist.
       Last year's program was set in motion by City Council member Jerry Heimlicher, whose district includes the Westside, to compensate for budget cuts that would otherwise have ended a long tradition of flowers in public parks and rights of way around the city. Marshall said the practice goes back 97 years.
       For more information, call Marshall at 578-6649, or go to the city website at springsgov.com and click on the Springs in Bloom link.

Westside Pioneer article from a press release