How the Denver Daisy Came to Fruition as the City’s Legacy Project for the Sesquicentennial

Starting on Earth Day, April 22, 300,000 Denver Daisy seed packets were distributed throughout the Denver metro area – in KeyBank branches, garden centers, Denver elementary schools, 5280 magazine and a host of other locations. If all are planted, the City will be transformed by summer and perhaps for years to come.

But this one-of-a-kind flower didn’t grow as a legacy project overnight.

It reflects more than 18 months of collaborative efforts. Rob Simon, a local marketing and public relations consultant involved with the Denver Daisy from Day One, remembers how the idea took root.

At the Mile High Alliance, a monthly gathering of local public relations and marketing leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors, the City sought ideas for commemorating its 150th anniversary in 2008.

“We were discussing ways to give a gift back to the people of Denver – something big,” said Simon. “And I said, ‘Why don’t we create a whole new species?’”

So the group began brainstorming and quickly decided a new flower was the idea to pitch to the City. “Good ideas grow on their own,” he said.

To get advice on whether such a project was possible, the City contacted Panayoti Kelaidis, curator of plant collections at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Kelaidis was confident the idea would work and approached Hardy Boy Bedding Plants CEO Al Gerace to collaborate on ideas for finding the right flower for the occasion.

Kelaidis had worked with Gerace on Columbine Remembrance, the flower named in memory of the victims of the Columbine High School tragedy in October 1999.
Gerace, who for 34 years has been involved with bringing plants to Colorado that are suitable for the state’s growing conditions, said someone initially suggested a type of sunflower. But he thought something that would sustain color for a longer period of time would be more appropriate. “This is a great way for the green industry of Colorado to celebrate the sesquicentennial with the mayor and the City,” he said, “and we really wanted something that would last all summer.”

So Gerace enlisted the help of Duane Sinning, who spent 13 years working with PlantSelect, a cooperative program administered by Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University in concert with horticulturists and nurseries throughout the Rocky Mountain region, and now works for seed production company Ernst Benary of America Inc.

Within hours of Gerace’s initial request, Sinning, who was at Benary’s headquarters in Germany at the time of the call, met with upper management and discussed the possibilities of offering a new cultivated variety (“cultivar”) of Rudbeckia that was in pilot production. Benary executives were enthusiastic.

“If this looks like a go, they said, we’ll plant more,” according to Gerace.

Their effort was fruitful, the process for producing at least 3 million seeds began – and the Denver Daisy was born.

Since that time, PlantSelect, Hardy Boy Bedding Plants, Denver Botanic Gardens, the City and County of Denver and Colorado State University have worked together to see the project through to completion. During the next five years, Benary will devote 10 percent of the income from the sale of the Denver Daisy to Plant Select for promoting the new flower nationwide.

Gerace said the work has resulted in a unique project for Denver. Whereas municipalities and states regularly adopt a flower to call their own, Gerace said Denver’s project carries much greater significance.

“Benary decided to forego entering the Denver Daisy as an All-America Selection because this is such a unique situation,” he said. “As far as I know, no city has ever adopted a flower that hasn’t been previously introduced. This is pretty big.”