Richardson's spring wildflowers start now. Parks and Recreation crews began the city's annual fall seeding this week, spreading about 2,100 pounds of seed over roughly 50 acres of parks, street medians and other city property, according to the city's Oct. 23 Week in Review.
The blend, which the city calls the "Richardson Mix," includes cornflower, rocket larkspur and red corn poppy, chosen for overlapping bloom times and hardiness. Flowers are going into every city park this year. Crews are leaving some unplanted paths inside a few of the fields so visitors can take photos among the blooms next spring without flattening them.
The program dates to a 1990 trial planting at Campbell Ridge Park, and the Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival grew out of it in 1993. City ordinance prohibits picking or damaging the flowers.
Residents, homeowner associations, nonprofits, churches and businesses can pay to have a median, park or other public spot near them seeded through Operation Bloom Town. Applications for that program are due June 15 each year, and the city charges only the wholesale cost of seed and labor, about $100 per tenth of an acre.
Revitalization award deadline
Sunday, Oct. 25, at 11:59 p.m. is the extended deadline to nominate a property for a 2026 Community Revitalization Award. The City Council created the awards in 1994 to honor owners of homes and commercial buildings whose exterior improvements have lifted the surrounding area, and more than 350 properties have been recognized since.
Anyone may submit a nomination, including the owner. Eligible work includes major improvements that reverse a property's decline, exemplary upkeep or refurbishment, a teardown and rebuild, and new construction on a vacant lot in an older neighborhood. Winning projects usually combine at least two elements such as facade work, landscaping or lighting, signage upgrades and consistent maintenance.