It’s the first day of spring, and that means it’s just about
time for our Flower Power Crew to activate.
That’s the unofficial name for the 30+ people on French Lick
Resort’s grounds maintenance staff who plant, water and maintain the hundreds
and thousands of flowers that will be popping up eventually across the resort
when springtime reaches full bloom.
Here’s the lowdown on some of our flower figures:
• Between both properties at French Lick Springs Hotel and
West Baden Springs Hotel, we have 40+ different varieties of flowering
perennials and 17 varieties of summer annuals used each year.
• Roughly 11,000 summer annuals get planted throughout the flowerbeds,
hanging baskets and planters all throughout the resort.
• About 6,000 of those annuals are grown in our greenhouse,
including 90 hanging baskets. Some of our flowers are purchased outside — though
pretty much every single bed, pot or planter on property usually contains a
plant that was grown on property in our greenhouse as all our pots, trays and
hanging baskets can get reused year to year.
• Trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals can be seen in
bloom from April-November throughout property. Summer annuals are installed by
mid-May. Right now, we've started a few summer annuals in our greenhouse and begun some of the prep work with adding mulch and completing some other spring cleanup in the formal gardens.
Our flowers get plenty of personal TLC, too. Once they go into
the beds, hanging baskets and planter pots around the resort, nearly all of
them are hand-watered (by the Flower Power Crew, of course) except for the larger
beds in front of the hotels that use an irrigation system.
The colors should be popping by April 24 in time for our
first West Baden Gardening
Guidance class, where you can get a tour of our greenhouse and check out
the formal gardens. (Classes run every Wednesday morning until May 22.) Class
sizes are always small, so you can get any of your own gardening questions
answered by our resort’s grounds staff. Then, you can be equipped with a little
flower power of your own.
And with the spring views coming back into season, add some
of our color to your Instagram feed after you’ve visited #frenchlickresort!