Visitors to Schenley Park’s Bartlett Playground are greeted with an abundance of spring every April, as the once-barren area around the sidewalk and fence are now adorned with 13,000 daffodils. A partnership between the City of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Penn State University Extension, and volunteers from Giant Eagle, the YWCA and church groups from the South Hills area, made mass bulb plantings in October 2007 and 2008 possible. Future plans include daffodil plantings in all four regional parks, as well as in areas involved in the City’s Green-Up program, over the next several years. The bulb plantings are a perfect fit with Penn State Extension and the City’s efforts to install sustainable landscapes on vacant lot sites in various communities in Pittsburgh. Daffodils can return for decades without being replanted, so the investment made today will pay for years to come. As the plants naturalize, daffodils will be seen blooming around Pittsburgh each Spring.

The Bartlett Street site was chosen as the pilot location for the daffodil-planting program because of it’s high visibility and its solution to a park maintenance challenge. With a lengthy stretch of trees, turf, sidewalk, and fence posts all within a few feet of each other, the area is difficult to mow. To reduce the time and cost of maintaining the site, park maintenance crews had converted part of the turf around the sidewalk to bare soil, which provided an ideal location for the daffodils.  

The daffodil planting method employed at the site is unique, differing from the traditional method and incorporating some of the latest research from The Netherlands. The standard practice for installing daffodil bulbs involves using bulb planting tools or electric augers to dig 6” deep holes, a potentially daunting task in heavy clay soil. The Dutch installation method involves placing the bulbs on top of the existing grade level and then covering them with 6 inches of compost. At the Schenley site, 2-6 inches of soil was excavated, and a 50:50: mixture of soil and compost was used as backfill and covered with double shredded bark mulch. The pre-planting soil excavation was performed to match the grade of the adjacent sidewalk.