Eastern Market's 44th Annual Flower Day is Sunday, May 16. If you've never been, is a treat for the pocketbook and a feast for the senses. Hosted by the Metropolitan Detroit Flower Growers Association and
Eastern Market Corp., Flower Day features over a million plants -- annuals, perennials, foliage, shrubbery, trees and more -- from more than a hundred flower growers from Michigan, Ohio and Canada.
While many of the growers are at the market weekly, having a day focused on just plants means a centering of expertise, says Michelle Miering of the growers association. "It gives growers the opportunity to sell their products, and it also helps to enhance the public with more knowledge," she says. "(The growers) talk to customers about how the product grows, how to plant it, what they might be doing wrong and what they're doing right in their garden."
On top of garden shopping, there will be five entertainment stages, a wagon-decorating contest, a Friends of Eastern Market VIP Station with free refreshments and massages (and yes, you can join that day), a children's area, and two free pick-up/drop-off stations to make hauling purchases a little easier. The majority of Eastern Market stores and restaurants are open for business, and there will also be a Taste of Flower Day Food Court.
Flower Day runs from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is Michigan's largest flower event, drawing 150,000 people a year. "Every single stall at Eastern Market will be filled, ... and there couldn't be a better place to have this event," says Miering. "Without Eastern Market on board, the event wouldn't be so fabulously popular. ... It's historic, it's got its own aura, and it draws some people just for that."
The newly-renovated Shed 3 will make its Flower Day debut. Its reconstruction, which was completed in November 2009, has netted the Eastern Market Corp. a couple of awards: a quality of life award from the Michigan chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a special recognition award from the Construction Association of Michigan.
This momentum is carrying over to Shed 5's modernization, which is next on the organization's agenda. Construction document production and fundraising for that project is underway. Plans call for the construction of a community kitchen that can be used by caterers and other food entrepreneurs.
Sources: Michelle Miering, MDFGA and Kimberly Hill and Randall Fogelman, Eastern Market Corp.
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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