Downtown is full of beautiful blooms. Have you ever wondered what is takes to keep downtown attractive and vibrant? Our beautification program plants flowers, maintains baskets, installs decorative lighting, and helps small businesses improve facades through a grant process. Learn about what happens behind the scenes. 

Flowers

Hanging Basket Program

In 2014, DRI took over the Hanging Basket Program in Downtown Roanoke. DRI works with The City of Roanoke’s Department of Parks and Recreation to plant, hang, and maintain the baskets. With donations, we've expanded the program by 276 baskets, 124 planter boxes, and 9 palisade planters. Our goal is to increase the number of baskets and planters each year until we have them hanging throughout the downtown district and lining our walkways. Each basket costs about $350 for plants, materials, and maintenance per season. 

Planters

We have several different planters. You've probably seen the long, rectangular ones with stars in Market Square. These can be moved for our large events and require watering often. DRI also has round, self-watering planters. Each planter has a reservoir on the top where water is deposited using our watering vehicle. Water is then absorbed as needed by the plants' roots. Planters cost a whopping $550!

Maintenance

With all these flowers, we need help keeping the planters and baskets looking as pretty as possible. Have you ever seen our watering truck or our Beautification Manager, Ed? He uses this vehicle, called a "GEM," to hydrate our plants all over downtown. The truck holds 100 gallons of water, which is enough for approximately 5 planters at a time. Ed waters plants 5 days a week as needed. Additionally, our Downtown Roanoke Ambassadors lend a hand by removing litter and weeds from the planters.

Lighting

Market Square Trees

Each year, we add string lights to Market Square for the holidays. We decided to step up our lighting by adding permanent strands to the trees with built-in bungee cords that allow the light wire to expand with the tree, keeping the tree free of damage. Now, Market Square is lit year-round, creating a welcoming ambience! Little maintenance is required of this lighting.

---

Century Plaza

In between the vibrantly painted Sister Cities columns, you'll find bright lights strung from one side of Century Plaza to the other, creating a beautifully lit walkway. 

The plaza is used daily by pedestrians but it can also be rented for special events like weddings or happy hours. The lighting is an added bonus for rentals and can take an event over the top. 

Light strands must be replaced from time to time. We most recently replaced them last Winter. 

Beautification Grants

Our organization offers beautification grants for downtown businesses and property owners. The goal of this grant program is to stimulate storefront beautification and to provide a financial incentive for property or business owners to improve/enhance commercial building exteriors. This year, we helped La De Da fund new store awnings and assisted Walkabout Outfitter with a new store sign. In the past, we've helped fund art gallery flags, the Printer's Alley mural, outdoor restaurant furniture, window decals, and more.