Beautiful Things Happen When People Join Hands, Work Together

Large flower pots have adorned downtown Ulysses for the past four years, complete with beautiful plants and flowers. They show up each year, not by magic, but thanks to the efforts of volunteers.

Grant County  Tourism Council have been planting flowers and other plants in the huge, reddish-brown colored flower pots with the assistance of volunteers such as the local Jag-K students from Ulysses High School and their sponsor Rosalinda Ochoa, employees of Adobe Historic Museum, Beth Mathes and Jessica Morphis-Wise, Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline, and the Leonard boys.

Two of the tourism volunteers involved in the project are Debbie Long and Marsha Flummerfelt.

"The reason we do this is for the beautification of Main Street," Flummerfelt. told the Ulysses News in an interview last year. "We have been very pleased with the response from the community about how nice it looks. We really do enjoy doing it."

Also assisting the duo with the recent "plantings" was Grant County Chamber of Commerce Director Robin Leonard and Grant County Chamber Executive Assistant Jessica Cross. Also serving on the tourism board, the chamber has been assisting with the project since its inception.

Over the years, those involved with the project have learned to "stream line" the project through trial and error. They have utilized shopping carts to assist them in taking the plants, jugs of water and soil up and down Main Street as they work on each of the planters.

The project does involved walking, as the volunteers make the trek up and down both sides of the street, stopping at each planter to add the plants and water them with milk cartons full of water.

Long credited the Jag-K students from the high school during the interview last year with the help they provide in the project.

"They are so helpful, not only on planting day, but taking the plants out when we are ready," Long told the Ulysses News. "They are good to help us."

There are 19 large planters to fill and maintain. It has also been through trial and error that determinations are made on what to plant in each one.

Long and Flummerfelt have changed things up in the pots, ensuring each one has something different for those visiting downtown to enjoy.

Around April of each year, tourism begins planning for the next year's round of planting. The majority of the plants have been acquired from Koehn's Country Gardens, and the dirt (potting soil) they need from Ace Hardware.

The ladies say they do their best to get everything they need locally.

At the April Tourism meeting, they go over what they did the previous year. Deciding what worked, didn't work and what they might try next.

The plants recently added to the pots will be taken out in the Fall - they will need cared for in the interim.

"We want to make our Main Street pretty and inviting so people will want to spend time there," Long said. "We want to make everyone feel welcome."

"We are doing this for the community and we are grateful we have the opportunity to be involved in it," Flummerfelt said.

Cost for the Main Street project is covered by the Tourism Council, funded by a local bed tax.

Volunteers are welcome and always needed, if you would like to assist with this or other projects, contact the Ulysses Chamber of Commerce.