“Our department recognized how important the Games are to this city, to this state,” said Robert Houtz, chair of the UK Department of Horticulture. “We knew we had the resources and dedicated people who could help beautify the Games.”

Games officials contacted the UK College of Agriculture and provided a wish list detailing what they hoped to see at the venues. UK Extension Floriculture Specialist Sharon Bale worked with UK Horticulture Research Farm Manager Darrell Slone to determine just what the department and the farm could do.

UK student farm workers collaborated with Janet Pfeiffer, Kirk Ranta, Bale, and Slone to gather about four tractor-trailer loads of various plant materials that made their way to Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park for the Games