Thank you, Natchez!

The Garden Lovers of Natchez and I, personally, would like to express our gratitude for the wonderful response to our request for your donations to the hanging flower basket project we are undertaking.

At this point, we have commitments for 87 complete baskets and other donations that will help with the planting and care of them. Your generosity and enthusiasm for the project has been overwhelming.

In case some of you missed my last Top of the Morning article in January, The Garden Lovers of Natchez, a Garden Club of America club, is sponsoring a project to attach hanging flower baskets to lamp and light posts in downtown Natchez. This will be very similar to what is done in Fairhope, Ala., which is spectacular. We have gotten the city to agree to water and feed the baskets, but the Garden Lovers will oversee the care. This is a major undertaking, but it is one we have wanted to see accomplished for some time, and we are committed to it.

At this point, we have donations or pledges for enough baskets to line all of Main and Franklin from Union to Canal Street. It would be wonderful if we could add enough to do the lamp posts all along Broadway. This would require an additional 21 double baskets. Single baskets cost about $150 apiece and the doubles about $190. This is a goal we will work towards in the upcoming year.

The 87 baskets that have already been committed to should be up in mid-April. The brackets for the poles are being made in California and take several weeks to arrive. Also, we have been advised not to put up the baskets before there is little chance of a freeze.

If you are interested in helping with this project, we would greatly appreciate any financial support you can give us.

If you contribute $150 or more, your name or that of someone you wish to honor or memorialize will appear on a plaque.

Simply send your check to Garden Lovers of Natchez, 58 Duncan Ave., Natchez, MS 39120, and specify who you wish to honor along with their address, so that we can notify them.

All contributions are tax deductable, and any amount you feel you can give will be greatly appreciated. There are other expenses such as the plants, liners and food that will need to be provided, so additional funding will always be needed.

Again, thanks to so many people for the generous support we have received. It’ll just be a couple of months before this special gift for our beautiful, historic home on its 300th birthday is up for everyone to enjoy.

I hope you’re just half as excited as I am!

 

Marcia McCullough is chairman of the Hanging Flower Basket Fund for the Garden Lovers of Natchez.