A well-known horticultural site in Winkler has undergone major changes.

The corner of highway 14 and highway 32 previously displayed the city of Winkler's seal in blue, yellow, and red flowers. Now a simpler garden has replaced the thousands of blooms, all of which had to be planted by hand year after year.

Winkler's horticultural society designed a new garden with large boulders interspersed among decorative grasses and shrubs, with flowering trees standing in the background.

"We have in the past planted many many thousands of flowers," said horticultural society chairwoman Margaret Penner. "[We] dug the holes and painstakingly planted in the small annual flowers."

Penner remembers when this plot was first turned from grass and weeds into the colourful garden it has been for the past 15 years. She says the labour of preparing the soil, digging holes, and planting each flower required too much work. So the committee decided to make some changes. Together with Morden Nurseries, the horticultural society drew up new plans for the plot.

"We feel this is going to be relatively maintenance free. We think this will have a very different look, but we think it will be beautiful."

One of the crew doing the running maintenance of the new garden is the City of Winkler's newest arborist, Adam Giesbrecht.

"It's a lot of fun. I love this," said Giesbrecht. He will be handling some of the watering, mulching the area, and possibly spreading some fertilizer for the plants and trees.

The project only cost the society around $1000. Such a low cost was only possible because local businesses all but gave the stones and plants to the society. Penner commented that nothing was donated, but they were offered excellent deals which kept costs to a minimum. Penner said the businesses the society spoke to were generous and were interested in making the city more beautiful.

Costs for the project actually came from Winkler's citizen of the year for 2012 and former chairperson of the horticultural society, Meg Suderman. She was given $1000 as part of the award which she could give to the charitable organization of her choice.

"We already had plans to change this up specific spot, "said Penner "So [Suderman] gave the $1000 toward the project here. That would cover the costs for this."

People from the society were responsible for planning and designing the site.

Penner mentioned that volunteers are needed for the Winkler-wide planting days, May 31 and June 1, when the horticultural society fills the city with flowers. Anyone interested in helping out, can call Margaret Penner at 1 204 362-2552.