Sunday, August 22, 1999
N.Ky.'s official bloom not blooming enough, teacher says
BY AMY CAPPIELLO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — Despite a drought killing plants all around her, Linda Sullivan is on a crusade to save a part of Northern Kentucky's identity: its official flower.
Two years ago, Mrs. Sullivan, then an eighth-grade language arts teacher at Holmes Junior High School, helped students in her micro-community class get the purple coneflower (echinacea) recognized as the official flower of the tri-county region.
Her students succeeded, with official coneflower declarations in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties and in Cov ington. But lack of rain and a change in the school's schedule have made it nearly impossible to expand the project or even keep alive the flowers students planted in two locations.
The coneflower project started in the fall of 1997 when Mrs. Sullivan's 15 class members began brainstorming about what kind of service-oriented project they wanted to complete.
“We were trying to come up with a project that would be meaningful and a project that could be left behind,” said Mrs. Sullivan, who is moving into the office of attendance and discipline this fall.
After numerous discussions with community members and business leaders, inspiration struck when Tom West, a member of the Covington Business Council, told the class about a flower project he had worked on in Louisville.
“The class decided to try to get an official flower for the Northern Kentucky region,” Mrs. Sullivan said. “They did all the legwork. They researched flowers. They had a specialist come in and talk about what would do well here. Then they picked the purple coneflower.”
The striking purple flower with a bronze cone attracted the class not only for its beau ty but also because, as a wildflower, it was inexpensive and could withstand the elements. It's also considered by some to be a medicinal herb.
With help from the judge-executives of Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties, class members succeeded in having the purple coneflower named Northern Kentucky's official flower. The city of Covington also adopted the flower, which was already the official flower for the city of Newport.
Covington Parks and Recreation helped the Holmes students prepare for planting by tilling the ground, laying fertilizer and lending hand tools. Michele Geraci, neighborhood services coordinator for the city's parks and recreation department, said the idea of an official flower for multiple counties was unusual.
“I think other counties have flowers as well, but I can't account for multiple counties adopting the same flower, especially at the same time,” she said.
But the project, which charged out of the starting gate, has slowly lost steam. Flowers planted at Holmes Junior High School and at Pike and Seventh streets in Covington have not been consistently watered in almost a year, and the class that organized the drive has been disbanded. A revitalization effort, however, is under way.
Mrs. Sullivan is appealing to the Holmes Junior High School Youth Services Center to include the flower project in its after-school program.
“Officially the purple coneflower's been pronounced to be Northern Kentucky's flower,” she said. “I feel really bad, though, because it's such a great project and it hasn't gone anywhere else. We envisioned the whole hillside when you come down I-75 filled with flowers, but that hasn't been realized. But we're going to give it a shot and see if we can get some kids interested and get back to it.”
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