Volunteers planting daffodil bulbs in 2017. The first community planting day this year is on Saturday at Len Mitzel Meadow.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
Medicine Hat News
The Daffodil Project launches its 2018 planting season Saturday.
The first community planting day this year will take place at Len Mitzel Meadow, where 12,000 bulbs will be put in the ground.
Len Mitzel Meadow is south of Trans-Canada Highway at the College overpass, opposite the Visitor Centre.
A generous donation of bulbs by Adair Prouty in memory of the late Len Mitzel, former MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, saw the specific area named by The Daffodil Project in his honour this spring.
If you are driving by on Saturday, honk your horn in honour of Mitzel and support for The Daffodil Project.
The goal of The Daffodil Project is to see a million bulbs planted by 2025 along the Trans-Canada Highway from Redcliff to Dunmore, about 10 kilometres. The purpose is simply to beautify the environment each spring.
This will be the fourth planting season and the focus is to plant on fairly level surfaces where the bulbs have bloomed best.
There is one other community planting day this season, Oct. 13. That day 10,000 bulbs will be planted along the highway from the Teepee toward the Visitor Centre. Volunteers are still needed for this event.
The Daffodil Project depends entirely on donations for the bulbs and every cent donated goes to purchase bulbs. Posting of bank statements and the only expense each year — the bulbs — is posted on the website for complete transparency.
The support of generous local businesses makes this possible. Niwa Crane takes delivery of the bulbs, stores them and supplies transport to the planting site, Grand Rental Station and A+PLUS Equipment Rentals provide free use of equipment to make the furrows to plant the bulbs in. Peavey Mart in Medicine donates items such as buckets, gardening gloves and rakes each year. Our first year of planting would not have happened had it not been for the generous donation of equipment by Home Depot.
Donations for bulbs can be made through the project’s trust account at ATB Financial, account number 07329-00410789600. Email a copy of your bank deposit slip for acknowledgment of the donation with your name recorded on the website. A donation can also be made in memory of a loved one and recorded as such on the website.
For more information, contact The Daffodil Project’s chair, Gillian Slade, 403-528-8635, email hatdaffodils@gmail.com, or visit medhatdaffodils.wordpress.com.
