Edmonds is known for its beautiful flower baskets, and now businesses and citizens can help offset the cost of the City’s flower program by “adopting” a basket.

At Tuesday night’s Edmonds City Council meeting, Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Director Carrie Hite announced the launch of the Adopt-A-Flower Basket Program, in which participants can make a one-season donation of $100 per basket. Donors will select the basket location, while the City plants and maintains the basket. Once the baskets are placed in June, the City will mark the basket with the donor’s information, such as the name of the donor individual or business or “in memory of” someone who has passed away.

According to Councilmember Diane Buckshnis, the idea for the Adopt-A-Basket Program came from former Councilmember Jack Bevan, whom Buckshis first met when the two of them founded a volunteer organization — Friends of Hutt Park — to clean up their neighborhood park yearly on behalf of the City. (That idea served as the model for the Adopt-a-Park project that Buckshnis launched two years ago.)

After an unsuccessful attempt to involve area businesses in adopting flower baskets, Bevan suggested to Buckshnis that it become a City parks department initiative. Buckshnis discussed the idea with Hite, and the project was assigned to City Recreation Manager Renée McRae. “Renee and her team have done a great job bringing this concept to fruition,” Buckshnis said. “I hope it will be a great success.”

Altogether, City staff maintain 163 individual flower beds in 36 locations throughout the City, plus 133 flower baskets.

Adopt-A-Flower Basket information and forms can be found on the City’s website at flowerprogram.edmondswa.gov, at City Hall and in the Frances Anderson Center at 700 Main St.