Kiwanis Club using flower power to beautify Rutland yards

Rutland, Vermont, Herald

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080914/NEWS01/809140378/1002/NEWS01

The Rutland Kiwanis Club's plan to turn Rutland into the day lily capital of the Northeast got off to a good start on Saturday when club members handed out 3,200 plants to anyone who wanted to add some saffron to their yards.

Undertaken as a beautification project, Kiwanis coordinator Richard Macaluso said he hopes that the free flower giveaway on Saturday and possible follow up plantings next year will lead to as many as 30,000 day lilies lolling in the sun by 2012.

That kind of flower power could in turn help fuel an economic engine for the region, Macaluso said.

"I'd like to see something like a 'Lily Festival' and maybe in five years there could be bus tours of all the lily patches in the city," he said.

Grandiose plans to be sure, but the seeds of that vision were being hoisted away in bags of 15 plants apiece at the event on Saturday.

"I've got a big tree in my front yard and I'm going to put them under it and all around it," said a Rutland woman who only offered her first name, Shan. "I already have a lot of daffodils and other flowers except these."

Pam Cupoli of Rutland stopped by to grab two bags of flowers that she plans to plant in front of her house.

"I want to share the beauty of Rutland," she said.

And like Rutland, the little saffron yellow flowers are not only attractive, they're hardy — able, in Macaluso's words, to survive the harsh New England winter, the thin soil of his Shrewsbury home and the blade of his lawn mower with which he accidentally sheared some of the plants.

As an added bonus, they require hardly any care aside from a few waterings after being put in the ground, he said, and they thrive in full and partially sunny locations.

So far, the group has spent between $2,000 and $3,000 on the project. Macaluso hopes residents take the initiative to purchase additional plants, which come in thousands of varieties and hybrids, on their own.

The Rutland Kiwanis Club is looking for new volunteers. The club holds meetings at 6:30 p.m. Mondays at Sabby's Pasta House on Center Street.

For more information about the club or the day lily project, visit KiwanisRutlandVT.org.