Todd Schrank’s world keeps on growing and growing and growing. And it goes beyond the legion of plants that he tends to on a daily basis at French Lick Resort.
Schrank is the resort’s grounds superintendent, charged with
keeping the whole property at its aesthetic best. That involves the usual day-to-day
upkeep such as monitoring the moisture level in flower beds, removing snow and
ice from sidewalks, and even catching and relocating a skunk (which Schrank and
a few others accomplished a few weeks ago without any foul-smelling spray
incidents to speak of). This is no garden-variety property, though — Todd and
his staff of 30-plus people have more than 3,000 acres to cover — so you’ve got
to have strategy in order to foster growth.
For Todd, that’s meant getting more mileage out of the
resort’s greenhouse, which was expanded a couple years ago, doubling in size
from 45 to 90 feet so the resort can grow more of its flowers in-house. It’s
meant hiring people with a horticulture background to his staff, as “now we
have a couple landscape supervisors that actually go out, handle the beds, trim
shrubs. We’ve never had that here before. It’s always been mainly mow grass and
weed eat. Now the landscape’s a big aspect of everything.”
It means adding to the floral landscape, as guests
at French Lick Resort can expect to see a couple new varieties of flowers and
plants every year. (This year’s additions are sunpatiens, cascading vinca in
some of the hanging baskets, and bapcopa and verbena in some of the 150 planter
pots across property.) And it also means getting things to grow where they
haven’t grown before.
“That bed there,” Todd says, motioning to the sea of red and white flowers in
the front drive of French Lick Springs Hotel, “is 3,600 begonias.”
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| Todd performs a scan and soil check just about every day in the warm-weather months in this front flower bed in the main drive at French Lick Springs Hotel, as well as with other planter pots and hanging baskets across property. |
Nothing was growing — or at least living very long — in that
space a couple years ago. “That flower bed had always been an issue and one of
our top priorities we were trying to get fixed,” Todd says. So they started
from scratch, first digging out all the soil that had been clogged with clay
because the bed wasn’t draining properly. New drainage and irrigation systems,
and voilà: flowers are thriving once more.
Many of the 17 different varieties of flowers showcased
across the resort have roots close to home, as about half the flowers on property
start in the resort’s greenhouse, located just off the self-parking area behind
West Baden Springs Hotel. The operation started small. In search of a winter
project, some of the guys at The Donald Ross Course started utilizing the
greenhouse several years ago to grow flowers for use at the Ross Course once
spring arrived.
Many of the 17 different varieties of flowers showcased
across the resort have roots close to home, as about half the flowers on property
start in the resort’s greenhouse, located just off the self-parking area behind
West Baden Springs Hotel. The operation started small. In search of a winter
project, some of the guys at The Donald Ross Course started utilizing the
greenhouse several years ago to grow flowers for use at the Ross Course once
spring arrived.
“They had a little operation going, growing some wave
petunias here and there,” Todd says. “They took a liking to it and were able to
expand. We’ve kind of stepped it up.”
This past winter, 134 hanging baskets and 7,000 plugs
overall were cultivated in the greenhouse. That accounts for about half the
flowers that now brighten the landscape across resort property.
“Pretty much every single pot around here probably has a
plant in it that started in the greenhouse,” Todd says on a recent Monday
morning as he zips around the resort in a golf cart, checking moisture levels
in the flower beds and baskets everywhere from the front of French Lick Springs
Hotel to The Stables property a few miles away behind West Baden Springs Hotel.
Most flowers at French Lick Resort get some personalized
TLC, too.
The team that Schrank calls his “Flower Power” crew takes
care of keeping all the property’s flowers and plants hydrated. Only a couple
of the big flower beds rely on irrigation systems. “People might not know that;
they might think we have everything pretty much on irrigation,” Todd says. “Pretty
much everything around property is hand-watered. Dead-headed, watered, weeded …
it’s good to have that, because they’re hands-on and they can get an eye on it
every day or every other day.”
There’s plenty to keep track of, because greenery has a
ubiquitous presence across the resort.
Stand at any spot outdoors at the resort, take a look around
on all sides, and you’re almost guaranteed to see a pop of color somewhere with
flowers. When Todd noticed recently that one of the only bare spots seemed to
be between the casino and the parking garage, he added some life to the area
with planter pots bursting with reds, purples, whites and yellows.
It’s a lot to take care of, but for Todd, that’s the idea.
He used to do some landscape projects at customers’ houses when he worked at a
nursery for more than a decade. In the five years he’s been at the resort, he’s
come to embrace the feeling and responsibility of keeping these vast grounds
perpetually spruced up.
“I like to stop and talk to guests when they’re walking
through the gardens or wherever I see them; I’ll stop and lend a helping hand
and just ask them what they think about the grounds and how their experience
has been here at the hotel,” Todd says. “I’ve had a few emails from guests, and
it’s been great comments coming back so far this year (about the floral
touches). It’s getting better and better. I think we’ve made some pretty good
changes.”