Kit Leffler

Tulips open up outside of Watson Library Saturday afternoon.

Every spring, students at the University of Kansas weave around maintenance trucks that hop over the curbs onto the packed sidewalks. Uniformed workers armed with garden tools and hoses spill from the trucks’ doors and scatter to various areas along Jayhawk Boulevard. These are some of the busiest times for Facilities Operations landscaping crews. They work full time throughout the year to keep campus beautiful, but they seem especially busy around the time when students break out their flip-flops and visitors roam campus with the help of backward-walking tour guides.

Their labors are now in full bloom. Magnolias and white-blossomed pear trees offer shade and sweet smells. On Fraser lawn, students often study, relax or play Frisbee on the bright green grass. Beds in front of Strong Hall and Smith Hall, as well as around the Chi Omega fountain, are covered with dense blankets of red and yellow tulips. Dave Vander Velde, director of the University’s nuclear molecular resonance laboratory, takes photographs that he posts on his personal Web site. He says his favorite time of year is during spring, when the tulips are out. He also loves campus just before Commencement, when it’s especially “spiffed up.”

All these landscaping and beautification efforts are part of a “landscape master plan,” which is part of Chancellor Robert Hemenway’s vision for campus. Hemenway saw the need to create a plan to preserve Mount Oread’s appearance and appeal to students and visitors, says Warren Corman, a University architect who helped draw up the plan. A beautiful campus is often a huge selling point for prospective students, Corman says. “Over the last 40 or 50 years, the campus had gotten kind of worn out from the use of it, with thousands of people here every day.” By fall 2000, shortly after Hemenway established the idea, the plan materialized into a $22 million initiative that would depend on monetary gifts from alumni and donors. In 2002, the family of former Chancellor Deane Malott donated a million dollars to build a landscaped entryway into the University at 15th Street and Iowa Street. Otherwise, donations have been slow to start coming in, Corman says, because KU Endowment has been focusing largely on its “KU First” campaign until only recently. “We’ve had a lot of offers to buy a few trees, but we haven’t had any $5 million offers,” he says.

The master plan has three parts, which will be carried out as more money is given: design, signage and maintenance, says Peg Livingood, a landscape architect who works in the University’s design and construction management office. The design aspect covers campus development and determines which plants will grow best in certain areas. Livingood, who has expertise in site planning and land use, helps carry out the design aspect. Signage has to do with everything from street signs on campus that help direct students and visitors to larger projects such as the Malott gateway.

The maintenance aspect, however, is where Facilities Operations workers come in. They set the master plan into motion, working from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to maintain the appearance of campus. Mike Lang, Facilities Operations landscape manager, was hired four years ago as part of the master plan to be the campus horticulturist and oversee grounds maintenance at the University. He says the crews often work overtime, sometimes nine hours a day, just before Commencement, depending on the workload and how much they’ve gotten done in advance. In the winter, landscapers work the same hours, doing grounds maintenance, mulching and trimming. He says the work is more worth it when he thinks the community appreciates it. “The students are just awesome up here,” he says. “Tulip beds, like in front of Strong, I can just imagine somebody running through or driving through, but the students and public have been fantastic. There has been very little vandalism.”

Many students appreciate the campus’ landscaping for the way it looks. And though the chancellor’s master plan is all about keeping campus beautiful, the planners and crews who carry it out also have to know a few technical things about the area they’re working with. They have to consider sun exposure, soil type, the grade of the land and the area’s climate. Besides being visually appealing, the flowers have to be able to stand up to the many climactic challenges Kansas presents. Tulips, which are planted in red and yellow all over campus, thrive in Lawrence’s climate. So do forsythia, the bushes that recently exploded into bright yellow flowers on campus.

Lang says that planting on campus is a constant cycle that moves with the seasons. Landscapers planted about 14,000 red and yellow tulip bulbs in December—bulbs need a few months before they are ready to bloom—and as soon as the tulips start dying in mid-spring, they’ll plant the “summer annuals,” which can be anything from red salvia to petunias to marigolds.

But before you start looking for summer flowers, try to take in everything spring has to offer. The water lilies and irises will soon be blooming among the weeping willows by Potter Lake, and daffodils are already sprouting up everywhere. If you’re graduating in May, breathe it in. Look around at your beautiful surroundings and take the memories with you wherever you wind up. If you’re returning to campus, keep an eye out for changes in the future. Corman, the University architect, says the landscape master plan is barely under way, with plans drawn up for a campus-wide pedestrian walkway and the building of more gateways in years to come.

Contact writer at:

pworthy@kansan.com