Central Park

Next March, one million daffodils will open in New York City’s parks. A quarter of them were planted Saturday by the 5,000 volunteers taking part in Partnerships for Parks’ seventh annual Fall Clean Up Day. They planted in parks and community gardens, along highways and around public plazas. The planting is scheduled to continue until mid-November when the volunteers will put away their gardening gloves and submit their memorial to nature’s workshop.

The bulbs and tools, like the labor that is making use of them, have all been donated. Hans Van Waardenburg of B&K Bulbs, a Dutch company with a strong sense of loyalty to the city once known as New Amsterdam, shipped half a million daffodil bulbs and 90,000 yellow tulip bulbs to New York Harbor earlier this month. The City of Rotterdam and the Rotterdam Port Authority have donated another half-million daffodil bulbs. The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce has donated 40,000 tulip bulbs for Battery Park, and Target Stores has donated $50,000 to replant lower Manhattan parks damaged on September 11. This generosity, striking on paper, will amaze New Yorkers come spring when "fields of gold" bloom in every borough.

Saturday’s planting and clean up also benefited from a donation of 4,500 trowels from Amres True Temper, 40,000 plastic bags from Rutan Polyethylene Supply & Bag Mfg. Co., Inc, 100,000 stickers printed with the campaign logo from Tri Flex Label Corporation, and a silk floral flag from Matthew David Events. The Parks Council, the City Parks Foundation, Partnerships for Parks, the Central Park Conservancy, the Riverside Park Fund, and the Coalition of New York City Parks have all helped Parks wage this unprecedented planting campaign.

Bob (Windmill) Hiensch, Consul General of the Netherlands; Adrian (A-Train) Benepe, Manhattan Borough Commissioner, Lynden (Wildflower) Miller, a member of the board of the Parks Council, joined Commissioner Stern at the podium on Saturday for the official start of planting. Two weeks prior, a group of more than 1,500 volunteers from Global Prudential braved thunder and rain to clean up East River Park. Part of their work that day was to informally begin the planting of daffodil bulbs. This weekend, planting will continue at 32 sites around the city. A total of 140,000 bulbs will be planted by small volunteer groups in every borough, as well as larger institutions such as the Points of Light Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, City College, and the Central Park Conservancy.

Mayor Koch announced the designation of Wings Point Associates, Inc. as developer and operator of the landmark Pier A building near Battery Park in Manhattan. Development for the pier calls for the creation of a $17 million restaurant and recreational facility, as well as a Harbor Park Visitor Center which will provide information about the history of maritime trade and immigration in the city.