City Arborist Plants Bronze Flowers
September 20th, 2024
Jerome Key insists that despite the fact he's Dalton's City Arborist, he doesn't have a green thumb. Fortunately for Dalton's Creative Garden Club, you don't really need one if the flowers you're planting are made of metal.
Key is working with the club to create an art installation at the Hamilton House, home of the Whitfield-Murray Historical Society. Bouquets of bronze daffodils will be placed on the grounds there soon.
"These bronze daffodils used to be out at Heritage Point Park, on Loveman Island," Key explained. "I can’t remember what the reason was for their removal. But we kept them stored here for all the years since they were taken up. (The Creative Garden Club) reached out and wanted to utilize them so we came up with this little project."
Caption: Jerome Key holds up a group of bronze daffodils which he welded together for the project
Daffodils are one of the flowers featured in the poem "The Rain Song" ( which is also known as "April Rain") by Dalton's Robert Loveman. In the famous poem, Loveman writes of all the different types of flowers which will come from a rain shower that is pouring down around him. Loveman is memorialized with an exhibit in the Hamilton House, and members of the Garden Club wanted to create a small garden on the grounds in his honor.
A triangular "flower" bed is planned, which will be bordered by brick walls. There will also be a plaque which will display Loveman's poem. Sculptor Merrill Hayes, who created the bronze daffodils, will also be recognized on the plaque. The bronze daffodils will be installed in several groups, which Key and his team are welding together.
"All of the bronze daffodils are individual daffodils (right now). So, we’re taking them and welding them together to make clumps of 3, 5, or 7," Key said. "We’re going to place them in the ground, planted with some sakrete (concrete) or something like that so nobody can yank them out and steal them."
Caption: A closer look at the bronze daffodils. Metal rebar at the base of each flower will be planted in concrete and buried to secure the bronze daffodils in place at the Hamitlon House
Key serves as a foreman in the Public Works Department. He has a number of different duties, including serving as the City's Arborist. In that role, he is tasked with maintaining all of the trees within City right of ways. But he says as much as he enjoys the job, he doesn't necessarily see greenery as a hobby. Welding bronze flowers is probably the extent of his gardening.
"I don’t grow my own garden, no," Key said. "I like my job and I like what I do, but as far as doing it as home, no, I’m no gardener. I can keep plants alive, but my passion is more fishing and hunting."
Key says he expects to see the bronze daffodils installed at the Hamilton House later this fall.
