The Garden Club of the Back Bay joined the Esplanade Association’s horticultural team last week to plant bulbs in front of the DCR Hatch Shell in anticipation of the next Boston Marathon.
“The blue hyacinths and yellow daffodils [the Garden Club members] planted with our horticulture team last week at the Hatch Shell will bloom, we hope, just in time for the 126th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 18, 2022,” said Michael Nichols, executive director of the Esplanade Association. “The bulbs were chosen to represent the signature colors of our partners at the Boston Athletic Association and, of course, the Marathon itself. We’re appreciative to the Garden Club of the Back Bay for all our partnership with their members and for helping us to extend this tradition another year.”
Garden Club member, Stephanie Fletcher, wrote in email, “Our Club has had a longtime relationship with the Esplanade Association and their trees and gardens. Garden Club members have had the pleasure to contribute to the landscape any number of ways, from planting to weeding to helping count trees.”
Fletcher added that the Garden Club’s own horticultural team “jumped at the chance” when they were asked for their help in planting yellow daffodil and blue hyacinth bulbs in front of the Hatch Shell in tribute to the Marathon. She also wrote this was the third year that bulbs were planted in front of the Hatch Shell to bloom blue and yellow, timed to coincide with the Marathon
“This isn’t our only Marathon-related work that we share with the Esplanade,” wrote Fletcher. “The last four years our Club has been helping place official Marathon Daffodils along the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. After the Marathon, our Club and Esplanade staff collect the daffodils for transport and planting on the Esplanade.”
Like other visitors to the Esplanade, Fletcher added that the Garden Club members “ look forward to the colorful display each year – one of the first signs of spring and a wonderful tribute to the Boston Marathon.”