News on Straus Park
Friends of Straus Park Activities for 2024
2024 has been a busy year for Friends of Straus Park and its volunteer team. Spring saw the previous Fall’s bulb planting coming to fruition with lovely yellow daffodils and multi-colored tulips in the major planting beds. This was followed by our volunteers, led by Joe Arbo, head horticulturist, planting an array of Spring flowers. These included New guinea impatience, rose bushes, Azalea bushes, Begonias, ferns, new hydrangea, coleus. pansies and clematis plants. Late spring we planted 500 pink leafy caladium in the tree pits and center garden as needed. Park maintenance work in late Spring included volunteers adding an additional coat of Tung oil to all the benches. This occurred over a two-week period.
Friends of Straus Park (FOSP) hosted an event on Sunday, April 14 to commemorative the 112th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic as well as the Straus Family who perished on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. A good crowd from the community attended. Event guests included Councilmember Shaun Abreu and Ian Robertson, a naval historian speaking about the Titanic tragedy and the Straus family. Councilman Abreau spoke about the importance of the park to the community. FOSP Board member, Paul Froehlich, described the extensive volunteer work to renovate the benches of the park the previous summer. FOSP Horiculturist, Joe Arbo, spoke about the seasonal plantings that beautify the park, he also mentioned that five new rat-proof trash cans were being bought and installed. Summer flower planting included northern hibiscus, phyllostachya, coleus, caladium, and many others.
The warm months have been a busy time in the park. Visitor use has been high, including many coming on their lunch hour to dine and talk with friends. Two new aluminum FOSP signs, were installed on fences in the park – allowing for a QR code to donate or volunteer. There is big news for our FOSP website. It is being re-designed to be more user-friendly and inclusive of our activities and park visitors. Also, the website will offer easier paths to donate and volunteer. Come mid-November you can see the results at fospark.com
Unfortunately, our annual Fall Art in The Park event on September 28 -29th was rained out – a bit ironic since October was almost rain free. The park’s Fall planting of chrysanthemums brightened the park as the Gingko leaves turned a bright golden color. The FOSP volunteer team also planted 750 daffodil bulbs and will be planting 2,000 tulip bulbs in November. For now, as Winter approaches, we are looking ahead to our new website launch and planning for work in 2025 to improve Straus Park.
Be sure to check out our upcoming events.
