400 Hanging Baskets Brighten Downtown Pittsburgh

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) placed 400 live floral hanging baskets throughout downtown Pittsburgh during the 2007 season. Working with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, WPC designed, planted and documented this pilot project for revitalizing Market Square.

New in 2007 were large planter boxes containing a colorful assortment of flowers and shrubs that included:

• Torenia
• Penunia Wave Pink Hybrid
• Petunia Wave Lavender Hybrid
• Ipomoena Margarita
• Million Bells
• Arborvitae

Six of the three-foot-diameter planters graced the area near the stage at Market Square. Nine additional large planters were placed there in June.

Baskets were visible along Forbes Avenue, Fourth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Fifth Avenue Place, Market Square, PPG, PNC First Side (Grant Street) and the South Side PAT “T” Station. In addition, baskets were outside of Point State Park, all along Grant Street from the Boulevard of the Allies to Liberty Avenue. Baskets lined 6th and 7th Streets, extending across the Roberto Clemente and Andy Warhol Bridges. Flowers in the hanging baskets include:

• Osteospermum
• Penunia Wave Pink Hybrid
• Petunia Wave Lavender Hybrid
• Ipomoena Margarita
• Million Bells
• in moss-lined baskets.

Funding for the WPC’s hanging flower baskets has been provided by the Laurel Foundation and several downtown corporations including Grubb & Ellis, Jenkins Empire Associates and PNC First Side.

Since 1982, WPC has established community greening initiatives in 19 western Pennsylvania counties through its Community Gardens and Greenspace program.  This program involves more than 5,000 adults, teens and children as volunteer gardeners each year.