Daffodils form cross

In 1980 Richard and Marjorie Wilson moved into their home at 1560 Franklin Gaynor Road outside of Hawesville. Shortly after they moved in Richard noticed some Easter lilies growing on property near his and owned by Lawrence Howard. Richard asked Mr. Howard if he could dig up some of the flowers and plant them in his yard.
“He said, ‘Sure, take what you want,’” Richard said.

That simple act actually led to a 25-year project culminating in a giant flower cross in his yard. When he started transplanting the flowers, Richard did not plan to create a flower cross.
“The first few years I planted them alongside the driveway,” Richard said. “I got a pretty good stand of them.”

One year he had some flowers left over, so he put them in the field by his house. He kept adding to them over the next couple of years. While looking at the flowers one spring Richard said he noticed sort of a cross shape forming in the flowers.

“I actually came to the house and got a tape measure and some tobacco sticks,” he said. “I went down there and laid out what it would look like if it was a real cross. I made sure it was square and everything.”

Each spring he kept adding new flowers to the plot, or moved some flowers to a better position. He finally ended up with a large cross of flowers that blooms each spring.

By Ralph Dickerson