If sunny yellow daffodils line the sidewalks, you must be in Mason.
Mason Sycamore Creek Garden Club spends time each fall planting daffodils to appear in the spring.
The garden club began the Down Home Daffodils project in late 2020 to brighten up the city during the pandemic, said Diann Jackman, president of the garden club and chairperson for Down Home Daffodils.
“We are just looking to brighten up the town. We would love to someday have it be a spot where people want to come every spring and say ‘let’s go to Mason and see all the daffodils blooming’,” Jackman said.
The group did the first planting in October of 2021.
Down Home Daffodils is a new initiative that hopes to grow in the coming years.
With the first planting, the club only had a couple of businesses, and they are now beginning to grow and add more for the next season.
The first business to partner with the club was Dart Bank.
“We started out and Dart Bank joined us at the beginning, and last year they extended their space,” Jackman said.
Jackman said the areas with the daffodils are what they call naturalized. They are not to be mowed until May 15.
The date was originally in June, but the group received some pushback from businesses wanting to mow their land earlier.
“Last year, we came to an understanding that by May 15 they could mow them down,” Jackman said.
In these naturalized areas, there are signs that mark the space as a “no-mow” area, along with signs of who sponsors the area. These signs are provided by SignSmith, a sign company in Mason.
“This year, we planted an area of over 200 bulbs for SignSmith, and they donated all of the signs,” Jackman said.
SignSmith is a family-owned business in Mason.
Owner Mike Smith said they donated the signs to the cause and they planted flowers for their business.
“I like their ideas of planting flowers to make the city pretty,” said Smith.
“A business or a family can sponsor a green space, any of the houses around if they are interested,” Jackman said, “We charge 50 dollars for a 10-foot space. That 10-foot space is 100 daffodil bulbs.”
She said the club has planted around 2,500 bulbs altogether.
“This year we have 3 more businesses interested in putting in some daffodils in their green space, which is what we’re hoping for,” Jackman said.
“Our plans for this fall are to fill the median behind the courthouse, and the businesses that have joined us,” she said.