“The beautiful downtown planters suggest to me that the people in this town care,” says Richard Rico, visitor from Wichita, Kansas. “A town’s first appearance is very important.” The Downtown Tonkawa Planter Project consists of 11 planters located on Grand Avenue from Centennial Park to the First National Bank Heritage Room, and is under the direction of the volunteer Pride and Beautification Advisory Board for the City of Tonkawa, chaired by Bruce Robinson.
Centered in each planter is a Melinis Savannah, an ornamental perennial grass native to Africa, with blue-green spiky foliage that is soft to the touch. The grass puts on plumes of ruby pink that change to white in the fall. Surrounding the grass are three varieties of petunias selected for their color palette of pink and white hues: Supertunia Giant Pink, Sweetunia Suzie Storm and Supertunia Vista Silverberry. The Supertunia varieties have tons of flowers that bloom all summer long and are impressive “spillers” for trailing over the planter’s edges.
Plant varieties were chosen for full sun exposure, heat tolerance, long-lasting color, low maintenance and visual impact. Pride Committee members Ken Crowder and Audrey Schmitz headed the project and obtained plants for the city by special order from Tonkawa’s own Hardware Plus Garden Center.
“The planters beautify the town for local pride and they visually welcome visitors to the community,” Melinda Glasgow, head of the Chamber of Commerce Tourism Committee, commented. City manager Kirk Henderson has received many compliments on the plantings. “Downtown is the heart of your community,” remarks Rico, “the planters are inviting and encourage me to explore Tonkawa and to return to see more.”
From April through October Pride Committee volunteers maintain the containers, planting, fertilizing, watering, pruning and otherwise caring for the plants. Along with Robinson, Crowder and Schmitz, current Pride board members are Kim Ochoa, Annie Owen, Terry Lee Thompson, John Witham and Natalie Williams.
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