Schenley Gets New 16-foot Flowers

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy will light five 16-foot tall metal and LED daffodils this week. The flowers will spring up on the “Big Lawn” in Schenley Plaza facing Forbes Ave. The flowers were fabricated by Louis Emmel Ornamental Iron of Coraopolis and wrapped by Parks workers in strands of green, white, yellow and orange LED lights. Phil Gruszka is the director of parks management and maintenance at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. He says the flowers are meant to be a “harbinger of the harbingers-of-spring.” He says the colors reflect the colors of the flowers that will emerge in a few months in Schenley Plaza and other parks throughout the city. The Conservancy plants 4-8,000 daffodils each fall. Gruszka says the effort has brightened parks and lowered maintenance costs. "The goal of the Pittsburgh Daffodil Project is to plant tens of thousands of bulbs in each of the city's major parks.” He says he would also like to see the number of lighted flowers grow. The conservancy is looking for funding to up the number to 40 or 50 flowers. Gruszka says the flowers are a great way to bridge the gap between holiday lights and the growing light of spring. The LED lights will come on in three stages. The lower foliage of the frames will be lit February 12 followed by the addition of the stems February 16 and then the blossoms will be illuminated February 19. The flowers will be lit daily through April.