This summer you've probably enjoyed seeing beautiful beds and baskets of red and white flowers around Airdrie in celebration of Canada's 150.

Blair Lenton, Crew Leader with the City's Parks Department, said you can keep smelling those flowers for a little bit of time before the flowers go away.

"As we get closer to the fall and we lose our summer staff, our frequency of watering will definitely drop. We'll try to maintain it at least through the long weekend and into September. Unfortunately when we start getting frost, the flowers start going downhill and by the end of September we'll start putting them to bed."

Once the flowers start to die naturally, the City will take down the baskets to clean them and reuse them. They'll also begin getting rid of the flowers as each bed dies. Lenton said they will try to keep the flowers around as long as possible.

Until then, the City's two person crew has been maintaining the flowers with daily watering and upkeep.

"It takes about over 300 gallons probably to water those baskets and it depends on what happened the night before. If it rained overnight, than it won't take as much. If it's been a hot, dry week than they'll definitely take a lot more."

Lenton explained that they also check the beds to see if they are still wet, and will determine how much water the flowers need.

While you might expect that the heat and dryness this summer has presented a challenge, Lenton said the conditions this summer have actually been ideal.

"When it's nice and hot, it's easier to look after them because we know we need to water them. When we have a year like last year and there's lots of rain, sometimes we run into some mold issues or some rotting because they won't ever dry out. This year's been great to be able to keep them looking as good as they've looked all year."

Lenton also said the lack of hail has meant the flowers have had an opportunity to keep the City looking great.

 

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