T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY The Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) volunteer team, along with Executive Director Deb Millizer, has been working to restore the famous downtown petunia beds since they suddenly died during a particularly hot and humid spell last month.

Residents and visitors alike were shocked and saddened about a month ago when the Marshalltown Central Business District’s (MCBD’s) beloved petunia beds began to wilt and die suddenly — in fact, it seemingly happened overnight on a particularly hot and humid weekend.

Thankfully, MCBD Executive Director Deb Millizer, the organization’s lone paid staff member, and her dedicated team of over 200 volunteers have been working hard to bring them back to life in the days and weeks since then, and they’ve already seen results. Millizer recalled working with MCBD Design Committee Co-chairman Jim Johnson and his son Ross last week to tidy up the baskets.

“We took out a ladder. We had to take some down completely, but then we trimmed up what we could and they’re already starting to spring back, so that’s a positive,” she said. “It takes a lot of volunteers. It takes two or three volunteers every day of the week to water for three months, so there’s a lot of volunteer effort that goes into that.”

For the last 32 years, the MCBD has worked with Isle of Green to put out the petunias every year, and there are now 24 total beds and 96 baskets, which cost between $12,000 and $15,000 to put up every year. As evidenced by the reaction on social media, there was a lot of disappointment when they began to die, but as many noted at the time, flowers all over the area struggled to survive the heat wave. They didn’t feel much could have been done to prevent it.

“We had to take some down because there was no reviving them. We were really heartbroken. We were trying to figure out what we could do. We couldn’t just leave them up there because some of them were pretty dire looking. So we had to take some down, rearrange some, clip some back… Some of them are a little smaller than others, but they are making a comeback. And we still have about two months of growing season left, so we didn’t want to ixnay all of them,” Millizer said. “It wasn’t something that we took lightly. It really affected us. I could tell you that we were all having sleepless nights over those petunias dying.”

She finally had to tell her design team that at the end of the day, they were just flowers, and they had to do the best they could to move forward while keeping a good sense of humor about it — Millizer even joked that they should enlist Anderson Funeral Homes to hold a memorial service for the lost plants.

“It was hard to read the comments on social media because we don’t want to disappoint people, but at the same time, it was like, ‘Oh, people do notice.’ They do notice the flower baskets and they do matter,” she said.

The petunias are now showing signs of life and returning to something resembling their former glory, with plans to keep them placed downtown until after Oktemberfest.

“Aesthetics really matter in a community, and even when it comes down to economic vitality, people want to be in places that look nice,” Millizer said. “It’s best for people’s mental health that they’re in environments that look nice, and (when) we have people coming to the community for Oktemberfest, we want it to look really nice for that event too.”

Along with the flower bed watering, the MCBD also runs the “Adopt-a-Berm” program, with all 24 of them spoken for currently. And while she appreciates the efforts of the volunteers who have already stepped up, Millizer could always use more.

“The secret to our sauce is (that) you don’t have to be an expert on anything. You just have to have a passion for the community because the downtown is the heart of the community,” she said. “So whatever happens here has a ripple effect. We’re trying to rebuild our economic vitality committee right now as we move into Main Street reconstruction.”

That committee, she added, will play an especially important role in helping to encourage the public to continue shopping downtown during the reconstruction as the current State Street project has had an adverse effect on several nearby businesses.

“It’s gonna be a challenge, and it’s gonna take all of us to do it,” Millizer said.

To learn more about volunteering, stop in to the MCBD office at 34 W. Main St. or visit https://www.marshalltownmainstreet.org/.

——

Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.