Detroit pride is rooted in tradition.
Detroit pride is Lions games on Thanksgiving Day. It’s Opening Day at Comerica Park. It’s pączki on Fat Tuesday and techno-fueled dance parties during Movement Memorial Day Weekend.
Flower Day, one of the city’s longest-standing traditions, took place Sunday, May 17 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., drawing thousands to Eastern Market to admire the bounty of more than 150 vendors that make up the Metro Detroit Flower Growers Association. And the Detroit pride was in full bloom.
Growers from across Southeast Michigan presented baskets of impatiens, braided gardenias, trays of celosias and racks of herbs as if the handlers of performers at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
“We’ve got lavender, and delphinium, impatiens hanging baskets, sunpatiens baskets — which is a sun-loving New Guinea impatiens hanging baskets — we have petunia baskets, geranium baskets,” said Eric Smith of Perennial Beginnings in the Monroe County Village, Carleton, Mich., adding 45 varieties of perennials to the list.
The Metro Detroit Flower Growers Association, which started as a group of just 20 growers, kicked off the first Flower Day at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in 1966. The festival made its way to Eastern Market in 1967 and has continued annually since, with virtual markets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A second-generation Flower Day participant, Smith has seen the growth of Flower Day over the past several decades. His father, one of the founding members that developed Flower Day, began bringing him to the event when he was just eight years old. “My father got to see it grow over the years,” Smith said. “At its biggest, we had about 155,000-160,000 people according to the police department one year. It was outrageous.” This year, he said, he anticipated over 100,000 people. “This has been a real thick, steady crowd — there’s not a real buying frenzy, which is OK, they’re still buying.”
Today, vibrant rows of indoor and outdoor plants, herbs, edible flowers and garden accessories line each shed at Eastern Market like rainbows.
Vendors like Smith prepare for Flower Day hours before the event begins.
“We rolled in here at 3 a.m. — and we were late,” Smith said. “There were other farmers here at midnight.” Smith said the first round of customers arrived at 6 a.m.
That doesn’t take into consideration the months of planning, and days of harvesting and loading vehicles to transport the plants to Eastern Markey.
“We start planting this stuff in December,” said Smith, who also sells his flowers at Eastern Market on Saturdays. The bounty will sustain Smith and his team during weekly Saturday markets for the season well beyond Flower Day. He and his team began prepping for the big event last Tuesday.
But the payoff, Smith said, is worth it. The reward is watching families walk away with his flowers in hand.
“That’s part of the fun,” he said. “I’ve been doing this so long, I’ve got a group of friends down here who were customers that I actually go to dinner with a couple times a year. I’ve known some of these people for 40 years — now the grandkids are bringing Grandma to Flower Day.”
For many of the attendees, participating in Flower Day is a tradition that has been celebrated for generations.
“I’ve been coming to Flower Day on and off for years,” said Doniss Hicks, toting his son Josiah, 3, in a red wagon. “I didn’t come last year, but I wanted to come with him. It’s a beautiful day and I want to get him in the culture of flowers and gardening and everything because that’s how I grew up — it’s kind of a rite of passage,” he said with a laugh. “When Flower Day comes, you have to get down here. You have to enjoy the atmosphere, the crowd, the people. It’s beautiful.”
If you missed the opportunity to experience Flower Day, there are other ways to purchase flowers at Eastern Market. Plants and flowers are always available during Saturday markets from 6 a.m.-4 p.m. and every Tuesday in May during Flower Tuesday Markets. That’s May 5,12,19 and 26 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until next year for the 60th anniversary of the first Flower Day at Eastern Market. Mark your calendar now. Just as there was last year, and all the years before, there will likely be a Detroit tradition happening at Eastern Market; the Sunday after Mother’s Day.
Contact Detroit Free Press Dining and Restaurant Critic Lyndsay C. Green at: LCGreen@freepress.com. Follow @LadyLuff on Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for extras and insider scoops on Detroit-area dining.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Thousands flood Eastern Market for Flower Day
Reporting by Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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