Between Tuesday and Thursday, 37 planters, 97 pots and 125 hanging baskets along Minnesota Street and Broadway were filled with flowers for the season.

New Ulm Chamber president Sarah Warmka said this year the flowers are from Hacker’s Tree Farm & Greenhouse. The cost of the flowers is covered through a partnership between the New Ulm Chamber, the City of New Ulm, Minnesota Valley Funeral Home (MVFH) and New Ulm Monument. The work of planting the flowers was done by several volunteer groups, including members of the New Ulm Garden Club, Sertoma Club and Chamber volunteers.

Warmka said the planting process began Tuesday with members of the Sertoma Club filling planters along Broadway. The majority of downtown pots and hanging baskets on Minnesota Street were filled on Wednesday.

Warmka said members of the New Ulm Garden Club helped clean the flower pots ahead of Wednesday’s planting.

Flower pots on the corner of 3rd North and Minnesota Street. Photo by Clay Schuldt

Chamber office manager Crystal Johnson said there were over 30 volunteers helping with the plantings on Wednesday. It took the volunteers around 30 minutes to plant and hang flowers along Minnesota Street.

The last step was placing roughly 300 stake placards in the flower pots. Each of the stakes features the name of a person who died in 2025 and whose funeral service was held by Minnesota Valley Funeral Home. This is the fourth year MVFH has included the memorial stakes in the downtown flower pots.

Warmka said memorial stake placards were also placed for anyone wishing to purchase a memorial or sponsor an organization.

With the flowers in place, it is now a matter of keeping them watered.

Warmka said the lead volunteer coordinators are Bob and Monica Farasyn, who took on the task of scheduling watering.

Around 125 hanging flower baskets were placed on lamp posts on Minnesota Street on Wednesday. Photo by Clay Schuldt

Johnson said the downtown flowers need to be watered once a day in the summer. On hot days the flowers need to be watered twice. Typically, it takes three hours to water all the flowers in downtown. Anyone interested in volunteering is encouraged to reach out to the New Ulm Chamber.

Warmka thanked all the organizations that sponsored the downtown flowers and the team of volunteers that made it possible.

“It’s a great service to keep our downtown looking beautiful and vibrant,” she said. “Seeing all the flowers downtown is a great first impression for visitors.”

Over 30 volunteers assisted with planting flowers in pots along Minnesota Street Wednesday. A total of 97 pots and 125 hanging flower baskets were placed in the downtown area in the last week. Photo by Clay Schuldt