Times Union Newspaper ArticleWashington Park in need of green thumbsConservancy seeks proposals from public to plant Albany's flowerbeds next summer to be part of festival
By Anne Miller, Staff
writer ALBANY -- The most prominent horticultural space in Albany will soon be open to gardeners -- amateur and professional. To celebrate the 200th birthday of Center Square's centerpiece, the Washington Park Conservancy announced Wednesday; a gardening contest will take over the park's flowerbeds next summer, in Albany's first Floriade. "We want to make a flower festival that's as big as the Tulip Festival," said Sandy Baptie, president of the conservancy, a private nonprofit group that raises money for the park. "The park is an amazing resource that's constantly being taxed by special events." The Floriade will draw public focus to the park without packing in souvenir booths and rides, she said. Public space has brushed against Willet Street, State Street and Madison Avenue since 1806. At one time, the area was a graveyard. With the graves now safely ensconced in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, the area has become a place to sun and play. "Washington Park as we know it dates from the 1870s," said Willard Bruce, Albany's commissioner of the Department of General Services. The city and the conservancy are planning a year's worth of events next year, including a winter lecture series and a historical exhibit that will make the rounds of the Albany Institute of Art and City Hall, said Bill Petit, who chairs the city's efforts to celebrate 200 years of Washington Park. Petit envisions historical re-enactments as well, depending on what the city historian's research turns up. The gardening contest took precedence for planning purposes, however. Baptie said the idea came from the Netherlands, where, every 10 years, Amsterdam creates a park and holds a gardening contest that serves as a festival and fund-raiser for the new public space. The Albany show could become an annual event, but Baptie said the conversancy will see how the first one goes before planning beyond 2006. In September, the conservancy will accept flowerbed design proposals from amateur gardeners and professional landscapers, groups and individuals. "It's not going to be, 'I'm going to plant 10 marigolds'," Baptie said. "It's a concept. It's an artistic statement we're going to ask them to make." The gardeners must also prove to the conservancy jury that they have the experience to care for a public flowerbed, be it by resume or proof of an award-winning backyard exhibition. Anything ornamental -- shrubs, flowers, grasses -- is welcome, Baptie said. Produce is not. The park may provide some floating gardens in the lake, and design proposals can lobby for a specific flower bed, but otherwise the jury will assign beds as it sees fit, Baptie said. The gardeners will dip their spades into the soil around the Moses statue, along the park's State Street entrance by Henry Johnson Boulevard, and by the former birdhouse near Hudson Avenue. By the end of October, the conservancy panel will pick the best 40 or so proposals, so those chosen have the winter to buy flowers to plant in late May, after the tulips bloom. The city will water the arrangements; the gardeners must prune and weed. In late summer, the conservancy will award prizes to the best beds Many details remain undecided. For example, amateur gardeners will receive some seed money from the conservancy, but Baptie said she has not yet determined how much. Professionals, such as landscape architects, will have to pay their own way. Contest applications are expected to appear in a few weeks on the conservancy's Web site, http://www.washingtonparkconservancy.com Meanwhile, the curious can click on the page's contact link to send Baptie questions. Miller can be reached at 454-5697 or by e-mail at amiller@timesunion.com |