City employees build and plant new flower bulb beds on Goodyear Boulevard after receiving a donation of flower bulbs from America Responds with Love, Inc.
Photo by Will Sullivan

City employees were building and planting a new bulb bed on Goodyear Boulevard last week.

Eric Morris, director of Public Works, said the new bed came about when America Responds With Love, Inc. contacted the city on Oct. 29 and offered to donate some flower bulbs for the city to use in beautification. The organization apparently distributes flower bulbs to cities around the nation for beautification and erosion control, Morris said.

The city sent a pickup truck to Meridian to pick up the bulbs and it came back loaded down, he said.

Daryl Smith, who oversees beautification for the city, said they went to Van Zyverden, Inc., in Meridian to pick up the bulbs.

“It’s a huge outfit,” Smith said.

The new garden will accomplish three things for the city, Morris said.

The flowers from the bulbs, which will occupy the center of the garden will add an attractive touch at a point that needs it. He said those flowers will be surrounded by annuals the city gets under its agreement with the Pearl River Central High School greenhouse program. The city gets most of the flowers it plants in the spring in various beds around the city from the PRC program, he said.

Morris said the bulbs will be planted for the tallest flowers to bloom in the middle coming down to the shortest on each side. In order from the middle, the bulbs will produce tulips, irises, narcissus and hyacinths, he said.

The flowerbed also will have two other features, Morris said.

One is a sign welcoming people to historic downtown Picayune. He said the city is continually expanding the perimeter out from the center of town until it encompasses all of the original downtown area. He said the sign is being bought with donated funds and not taxpayer funds.

Also, there will be a footpath across the eastern tip of the garden paved with pavers left over from work down around City Hall.

“We noticed people like to walk across that median to get to (shops) on the other side and we wanted to accommodate them,” Morris said. “It was all those things that came together — the bulbs, the sign and the crossover” that made the new flowerbed possible.

Smith praised the work being done at the site of the new flowerbed but was quick to say he couldn’t take any credit for it.

“My people have put a lot of work into it. I’ve been busy on other things,” Smith said.

“The message from the mayor and city council is clear. We want to beautify Picayune and distinguish what is historic by returning to signs and lighting that signify historic downtown,” Morris said.