Costco Connection - March 2011

The Sinnissippi Rose Garden in Rockford, Illinois, features an operational floral clock.

home & garden

America in Bloom
AMERICA IN BLOOM

By Eva Shaw

CAN PLANTING FLOWERS boost civic pride? Up property values? Make streets safer? “Yes!” say the enthusiastic folks involved with a homegrown movement called America in Bloom (AIB, www.americainbloom.org).

Based on the simple premise
that neighborhoods and urban
centers are nicer when there’s an
abundance of gardens, the grass-
roots, all-volunteer program
bloomed in 2001, establishing
friendly competitions. “It’s not
about winning,” says Costco
member and fourth-generation
nurseryman Dave Williams of
Westfield, New Jersey. “AIB
improves communities, one planter box and
one garden at a time.” The annual gardening
contests, now in more than 170 cities and 38