America in Bloom Coming to Holliston Tonight

Flowers, flowers, everywhere. Have you noticed all the flower displays around Holliston? With help from business donors, the Downtown Marigold Project and the Holliston Garden Club, the entire town is blooming with beauty.

The town is getting ready to be judged in the  contest. 

Holliston resident Mary Greendale first heard of the contest a couple months ago while working with a local garden club. She said she thought to herself this was definitely something Holliston could be a part of.

"I've lived in town for a long time and I've been a part of hundreds of projects where you need to get publicity and donations," Greendale said. "Usually it's like pulling teeth but this caught on instantly."

Greendale said one of the reasons the contest really caught on was because of a sense of pride.

"Everyone in town has a competitive nature and I think when you tie that in with their sense of local pride it creates a really positive environment," she said.

The competition is made up of more than 20 towns in state from coast to coast, and is divided up by population. Holliston is facing other towns in the 10,001 to 15,000 range including three towns that have previously competed.

"I decided not to look at who we are competing against because I did not want to base what we do on what they've done," Greendale said. "I want to do it the Holliston way and that's the best way that we can do it."

One of the categories that Greendale is focusing on is the heritage category. Being in Massachusetts the town has a great deal of history and she wants to make those attributes stand out.

The town has added QR codes at the historic graveyards in town and at the many war memorials around the town. All of the cades can be scanned by smartphones and will direct users to pages on the  website with detailed information about each section of town.

Judges will be attending a welcoming reception tonight at the Historical Society at 5:30. Over the next two days they will be touring many locations including the Town Forest, Goodwill Park, , ,  and several private gardens.

Greendale said that the way the town looks already makes her feel like the contest was a success. Bobby Blair, a volunteer who waters the flowers around town several times a week agreed.

"Whether we get an award or not doesn't matter," Blair said. "We're already winners because we've come together to make the town look wonderful.”