While the March sunshine melted snow and turned the gravel driveway leading to Hilltop Greenhouse into a slushy blend of of snow, mud and water, a sweatshirt-clad Gretchen Boldt opened a greenhouse door to reveal several rows of flower baskets with crisp-green buds growing in a comfortable 70 degrees.

“This is where all the work begins,” Boldt said.

Since 2011, Austin’s summers have taken root at Hilltop Greenhouse, where Boldt and her husband, Glenn, grow Austin’s downtown flower baskets at 83204 300th St. in rural Freeborn County, about 2.6 miles north of Hollandale.

This year, the Boldts planted 240 baskets in late February, and the yellow petals of bidens — along with orange ostespermums; white and blue carpet petunias; white alyssums; blue, purple and pink wave petunias — were visible by March to offer a faint promise of the robust flower baskets that will be hung along downtown Austin by mid-May.

“Everything we grow here we start ourselves and grow out,” Boldt said. “We don’t like to do huge volume. We like to do a quality product.”

This is the 21st year of Austin’s downtown flower baskets program. Community groups raised more than $39,000 — $10,000 from Hormel Foods Corp., $10,000 from the city, about $15,000 in community donations and about $4,180 in carryover — to fund the program that also puts potted flowers around Main Street, the Sterling Shopping Center and East Side Lake.

Austin community members and groups partner to bring the baskets to Austin, and Holdt said the community support “is the reason why those baskets look so great.”

Bonnie Rietz, a former Austin mayor who helps run the program, described the baskets as a great way to beautify the community and they’re a sign of warm weather.

“The people who live here in Austin look forward to seeing those flower baskets downtown,” she said.

A strong base

The baskets hanging and growing at Hilltop look relatively simple, but they’re made to keep the plants from drying out or from losing water. The baskets feature three main components: Moss mats are inserted in a wire mold that connects and funnels into a saucer.

Flowers are planted in the top of the mat and some are inserted into the sides of the matting to flower down. Back in the day, Boldt said the baskets probably utilized coco liners, which she argued allow too much airflow, and the baskets may dry out or heat too much. The moss liners, which can’t be seen once the flowers grow to a certain point, help hold water and give the plants something to root into.

A spacer is inserted at the bottom of each saucer so there’s a water reservoir at the bottom. It’s important for the baskets to hang straight or else the water will spill out.

“It’s just little things that make a big difference,” Boldt said.

The wire and saucers are all reused each year.

When planting, the Boldts utilize a factory system with everyone pitching in and each taking on a duty to make the baskets. They planted Austin’s baskets over about three long days. Gretchen and Glenn have help at Hilltop from their daughter, Julie Otto, and her husband, Steve Otto. The Boldts’ other children, grandchildren and a neighbor girl also help out from time to time.

The work isn’t done after planting. Along with routine watering, the Boldts pinch the flowers to encourage the roots to spread and grow hardy. Boldt said she wants something that grows tight so it can withstand wind and rain without getting pulled apart in the summer. They also watch the fertilizer, not wanting to overdo it, to make sure the plants form a good root system.

Boldt is proud of the product the family turns over to the city of Austin each May. But that’s still just the beginning. Once Austin Park and Recreation Director Kim Underwood gives the green light, the Boldts load the baskets onto a truck and line them along downtown early one morning so park and rec workers will follow to hang them.

Park and rec cares for and waters the baskets throughout the summer.

‘Part of  the community’

Boldt is proud Hilltop is a vital part of the regional community. However, Hilltop didn’t enter into Austin’s downtown flower baskets until a tumultuous time. The Boldts opened Hilltop Greenhouse in 1989 and built 13 A-frame greenhouses. Yet they lost everything when a tornado destroyed the business and the family home on July 17, 2010.

Just a few months later, Hilltop got the deal to grow Austin’s flower baskets. Though the family didn’t yet have a new space to grow them, the contract gave them something to strive for as they rebuilt the business.

“It was great because it gave us a goal and … some rainbow that maybe there wasn’t before,” Boldt said.

Boldt was thankful for the community support after the tornado, and Hilltop has taken on a more community-based approach since.

“It’s really nice to be a part of the community,” Boldt said. “[At] our business, we’ve always wanted that.”

Since the tornado, the Boldts rebuilt their home on the property, along with 10 greenhouses, and a new retail store, but they discontinued wholesale services. The business now has more interactive programs, like planting parties and a veggie club. Planting parties are classes where people or groups come out to the store, plant their own baskets and let them grow at the greenhouses until May. For the veggie club, Hilltop grows fresh produce on its 20-acre farm to give veggie club members a box of produce each week. They Boldts also sell plants, vegetables and more at the store.

Hilltop provides flower baskets to several communities. Austin’s summer flower basket program is the biggest with 240 flower baskets. Hilltop also grows about 30 baskets for Albert Lea, along with some flowers for Blooming Prairie, Hollandale and New Richland.

Albert Lea’s flower basket program had stopped, but it returned after Albert Lea’s streetscape renovations a few years ago. It will feature about 30 baskets this year.

The family loves being part of the area towns, and Boldt loves being able to see the results of their hard work hanging downtown.

“It’s terrific,” she said. “You’re really proud of what you do.”