Meet the people who have been making Waite Park bloom for more than a decade

WAITE PARK — Janice Rein made her way through a series of garden beds outside the Waite Park Public Library Tuesday, pointing out more than a dozen different flowers and plants poking out of the soil: tulips and honeysuckle, lilies, mums and hollyhocks, bleeding hearts, purple irises, queen of the prairie, daffodils and boomerang lilacs.

The Waite Park resident has been a member of the Flowers for Waite Park volunteer group for more than a decade. Throughout the spring, summer and fall, volunteers — most of them seniors — tend to all the city's gardens and flower boxes, planting and weeding and teaching others about the joy of getting your hands dirty.

"I love flowers. And I just think that a city should have flowers," Rein said. "They're they're just an addition to the city that makes it more beautiful. Flowers also are relaxing and peaceful, they're good for your health."

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The Flowers for Waite Park group was founded in 2011 when the city did not have enough staff to effectively maintain the gardens around town, said Margie Wolf, the city's utility billing and media publications coordinator. After reaching out to local businesses and residents for help, "we had a great response" from the community, even from volunteers who live outside city limits, she said.

All of St. Cloud's park flower beds are maintained by city employees, although there are many areas in town that are taken care of by residents and other groups, said Scott Zlotnik, St. Cloud community services and facilities director.

Giving back

Although she can't crouch down to weed and "deadhead" old flowers anymore, Rein said she mainly focuses on communications for the group, keeping track of volunteer hours and who is in charge of which garden.

"Last year I kind of perfected a bending squat that I would never want photographed," said volunteer Claire Garcia with a laugh.

Volunteers usually assign themselves to a garden around town and maintain the beds as needed, Rein said. Some garden to relax after work, and residents can volunteer any time from dawn until dusk. In 2021, the organization logged over 754 volunteer hours.

Gardens they maintain in Waite Park include River's Edge Park, the Healthy Living Trail, the Jagellio Park Sign Garden, the Ledge Amphitheater, the Public Works Facility, the Yard Waste Facility, the Community Park Sign Garden and flower boxes at City Hall and along 13th Avenue North.

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The city pays for most of the flowers and fertilizer, and the volunteers sell plants at the annual Waite Park Family Fun Fest in June to fundraise and share their bounty, Rein said.

"The idea was simply, we don't want to throw these extra plants away, and we don't have any place to put them. Let's put them for sale for a small price, so that we can share them with other people," Rein said. "It is a fundraiser but we don't make a lot of money. That's not the idea."

'It feeds my soul'

Most of the Flowers for Waite Park gardeners are seniors or at retirement age. Every year they have volunteers who have to leave gardening because they can't physically handle it anymore, Rein said. Others can still maintain flower boxes that are raised above the ground and are wheelchair accessible.

For many, gardening is a hobby that is extremely rewarding.

"It feeds my soul," Garcia said, who lives in an apartment now and doesn't have her own garden. "It connects me with my mother, who's deceased, and my grandmother, who's deceased."

"It's something I've done since I was three years old, so it's in my blood. I get that sense of peace," Rein added. "It's a wonderful place to think, you know? The smells and the dirt, and just getting your fingers in the down there in the dirt."

One of Garcia's favorite pastimes is watching residents walk through the gardens with their kids, "getting them started loving gardens early," she said.

To learn more about how to volunteer with the group, contact City Hall or visit http://www.ci.waitepark.mn.us/225/Flowers-for-Waite-Park.

Becca Most is a cities reporter with the St. Cloud Times. Reach her at 320-241-8213 or bmost@stcloudtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter at @becca_most. 

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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Meet the people who make Waite Park's city gardens bloom