Operation Petunia

May 13, 2016

Keeping Charlevoix Beautiful

Can you name one of the most popular blooming annuals? We’ve got the answer: petunias! While these flowers originally hail from South America, they vacation quite well Up North, where they’re used in window boxes, hanging planters and — perhaps most notably — in Charlevoix, where plants 60,000 of the friendly-looking flowers every single summer.

WILD IDEA

Steve Bennett is president of Keep Charlevoix Beautiful, the non-profit organization that helms fundraising, prepping, planting, watering and weeding for the petunias project. “Our founder Dale Boss came up with the idea,” Bennett explained. “The roads looked so blah after wintertime; he wanted to make the town look nice and pretty again.”

For the spruce-up, Boss chose the main road through Charlevoix, US-31, with the intent of planting flowers along the entire run — from city limit to city limit — an idea he cheerfully deemed as “wild.”

Boss’s enthusiasm caught on and Keep Charlevoix Beautiful has been running Operation Petunia for 33 years. Boss would even take the Petunia Truck, a flower watering truck with a white pearl finish decorated with painted petunias, to parades and events in Ann Arbor, Frankenmuth and Detroit, where the truck appeared in Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

“He just wanted to show people who we are,” Bennett explained. “It’s awesome how he just really, really believes in this thing.”

GLORIOUS SIGHT

Bennett has been involved with the project for the past 25 years. Boss, too, is still in the picture and he’s as dedicated to his petunias now as he was back in 1982.

“Dale is still the captain of the petunias,” Bennett said. “He’s out there watering them every single day from Memorial Day to Labor Day, every year, and he’s been doing this for all 33 years.”

Boss, now in his early 80s, doesn’t even take vacations in the summer, opting instead to stay in his hometown and enjoy the glorious sight of his brainchild.

“For him, this is his thing,” Bennett said. Bennett and his wife, Sandra, emergency room manager at Munson Healthcare Charlevoix Hospital, coordinate the plantings with the help of Keep Charlevoix Beautiful’s board of eight members, plus thousands of volunteers. With 60,000 petunias to plant every spring, it’s quite an undertaking. “We start early in the year, sending out letters to the donors who have donated in the past,” Bennett explained. “We are totally and completely funded by donations, which cover the costs of the dirt, fertilizer, truck maintenance and, of course, the flowers.”

PITCHING IN

A hardy variety of petunias in shades of red, purple, white and pink are chosen to make a striking multi-colored array. Starting the last Thursday in May, a week before planting, volunteers clean up and prep the old soil, with a friendly hand from the City of Charlevoix.

“They help us by taking the old dirt out to have it turned into mulch, and they pour the new dirt for us with their equipment,” Bennett said.

Five miles of petunias are planted — 2.5 miles on each side of the road — at Operation Petunia’s main event, Planting Day. This year, Planting Day is set for May 26. The two curbside lanes are blocked to traffic, a volunteer rolls dots to mark where the petunia plants will be put in the ground, and everyone pitches right in.

ALL FOR ONE

“We start around 3pm in the afternoon and plant until 6pm,” Bennett said. “We’re up to at least 5,000 people planting now, which is quite a sight to see!” When everybody gets done, they get a special ticket to East Park in Charlevoix, where a big party and cookout with hot dogs and music thanks them for their efforts. Later in the summer, Bennett added, you’ll see car passengers shooting photos or video of the petunias out their car window or walking along the sidewalk to get better shots, but for him, it’s all about being part of the community.

“It’s so nice to have this camaraderie in town and we especially like to honor Dale Boss for his love of the petunias and his love of Charlevoix,” Bennett said. “It’s also neat because everyone’s on the same level on Operation Petunia Planting Day. Whether you work at the bank, the hospital, on city council, as a doctor, a mayor, whatever — on Planting Day, we’re all just petunia planters.”

For more information on Operation Petunia and Keep Charlevoix Beautiful, visit keepcharlevoixbeautiful.org.