An Even More Beautiful New Canaan: 150 Hanging Baskets Go Up Downtown on Wednesday

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A cherished addition will grace the village center of New Canaan starting Wednesday, thanks to a partnership between the town and one of its most venerable nonprofit organizations.

Members of the New Canaan Beautification League this week put together 160 hanging baskets that the Department of Public Works are scheduled to place on lampposts on Main, Elm and other streets in the downtown.

“They do a fabulous job,” Libby Butterworth, a member of the NCBL for four years, said of the DPW workers.

Of the Beautification League, she said: “It is a wonderful, very friendly and hands-on group, and everybody is welcome.”

The baskets themselves, which the DPW fertilizes and Walt Jaykus of the public works department waters in the mornings, include angel wing begonias, white wave petunias and blue petunias, Butterworth said. (The white wave petunias do very well in both shade and sun, she said, while the angel wing begonias, which are red, start out very small in June but by August take over the basket.)

The Beautification League itself was founded in 1939 and parts of its work in town also involves caring for the landscaping on traffic triangles throughout New Canaan.

This year, Butterworth said, locals had an option to “sponsor a basket” for $45, and that helped raise money for the raw materials (from South Salem, N.Y.-based Valley View Greenhouses) used for the hanging baskets.

The sponsorship option helps bring more locals into the NCBL effort, Butterworth said.

“They feel like they helped with them, which is really important,” she said. “It gets people together.”

The league provides about 10 extra baskets each season for Jaykus, who will replace a basket that isn’t faring well and help nurse the original back to health, Butterworth said.

Next year, the Beautification League will supply even more hanging baskets for five new lampposts that are set to go in at Morse Court.

The New Canaan Beautification League’s membership is open to all—click here for more information.

One thought on “An Even More Beautiful New Canaan: 150 Hanging Baskets Go Up Downtown on Wednesday

  1. Hanging baskets have become a joyous signature for the town of New Canaan and Beautification League is pleased to collaborate with Public Works on this project.

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