Spring, but no flower baskets in Edmonds, due to gray mold infection

EDMONDS — The 125 flowering baskets lining Edmonds streets have added bursts of pinks, purples and yellows downtown for decades.

But as residents and other flower lovers may have noticed, park staffers removed the hanging baskets last week.

During the flowers’ three-times-a-week inspection, an Edmonds city parks staffer noticed something off.

Small flecks of gray mold peppered most of the petals on the red and yellow petunias.

The next day, the fungus had doubled. Every single basket was infected.

A horticultural novice might not see the problem. But Parks Maintenance Manager Jesse Curran, a veteran with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department for 27 years, is no novice. Thanks to a rare atmospheric river hitting Puget Sound, Curran knew he had to take down all the baskets before the fungus got worse. If gray mold goes untreated, it could kill the flowers.

Hoping to avoid the gloom, the city had put up the baskets May 14. Gray mold, or botrytis cinerea, thrives in damp cool weather.

“And that’s what we had for the last two weeks,” Curran said. “Usually when we put up the flower baskets, we’re headed into the dry season.”

The city chooses flowers that are resilient and “prolific bloomers,” Curran said. The baskets hang outside storefronts from May to September.

It was the first gray mold infection Curran had seen in his nearly three decades with the city. In a press release, Edmonds officials noted “the entire Puget Sound region is experiencing an outbreak” of gray mold.

As a result, all 125 hanging flower baskets, a downtown Edmonds staple in the warmer months, will be missing for a few weeks as parks staff work to dry out the baskets and remove the fungus.

The baskets love warm and dry weather, so the city will keep them in temperature- and humidity controlled greenhouses until they dry out enough.

The treatment plan is to remove all the infected blooms, use a fungicide to prevent further infection and keep them in the greenhouse until they dry out. The fungicide is used in a controlled greenhouse space, so it won’t affect other plants.

In farming, the mold caused by botrytis cinerea is a “major, widely distributed disease” that threatens blueberry crops, strawberry patches and other fruits in Washington and California, according to recent agricultural studies.

Edmonds gets its baskets from T&L Nursery in Redmond, who recommended the treatment. It’s more cost-effective to buy flowers in bulk from a nursery, Curran said.

In a few weeks, the baskets should be good as new and put back out in the city. By late summer, you can expect to see them to grow up to 2 feet, Curran said.

“You don’t want to lose the investment that we have, the public loves the flowers,” Curran said.

The city has an Adopt-A-Flower Basket program that helps cover the annual cost.

The baskets get adopted “right away,” Deputy Parks Director Shannon Burley said.

Adopting a basket comes with a tag where you can write a message for display. Some will dedicate them to a loved one, celebrate an occasion or just say, “Have a good day.”

“It gives people a chance to just become part of the community,” Burley said.

Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jenelleclar.