By Lisa Johnson
Imagine planting thousands of colorful flowers just to pull them out and plant thousands more in their place. That?s the job of the BYU grounds department at the Provo Temple.
Every September, the grounds maintenance crew takes out all the flowers at the temple and replaces them with bulbs and pansies, said Jenilyn Petersen, greenhouse supervisor of flowers. These stay through the entire winter. In May, the pansies are dug up, and annuals, like cosmos and marigolds, are put in.
Since it was built in 1972, the Provo Temple has received plants and flowers from BYU.
BYU grounds director, Roy Peterman, said plants, flowers and arrangements change every year. He said the ground?s crew never plants the same arrangement twice.
With the construction on the temple grounds, Petersen said the amount of flowers on the grounds is doubling.
?We are adding 5,000 bulbs and 15,000 pansies to what is currently there,? Petersen said. ?That makes it 10,000 bulbs and 30,000 pansies.?
Peterman said with this addition of plants and flowers, the arrangements will be changing.
?It is a complete re-do,? he said. ?Everything will change.?
BYU not only provides the temple with plants and flowers, but the grounds department also takes care of them after they are planted.
?We maintain the temple grounds,? Peterman said. ?All the plants that are planted at the temple come from us and are planted by us. If there are new plants that are required, we are the ones that do it.?
Will Terris, gardening maintenance supervisor, said there is one full-time gardener and five part-time helpers who are specifically assigned to that area. Their job is to maintain the temple grounds and the park in front of the temple.
?Because the temple is so close to our campus, BYU takes care of the temple grounds too,? Terris said.
Katie Whitlock, a BYU student said she enjoys the flowers when visiting the temple.
?The temple grounds always look so nice,? said the 19-year-old from Los Altos, Calif. ?It seems like a lot of work to keep up, but I think it is definitely worth it.?