Flower House Fights Blight with Blooms This Weekend

and Heather Saunders Photography

This weekend, a group of florists from across the nation will help with metro Detroit's blight problem by filling an abandoned Hamtramck house with flowers. From Oct 16-18, visitors can tour the house. When the installation concludes, organizers plan to deconstruct the house, re-use and recycle its materials, and turn the remaining lot into a flower farm and design center for organizer Lisa Waud's business, Pot and Box. The florists working on Flower House will give each of the home's 15 rooms a full transformation using American-grown flowers.

Waud discusses the project in a video on Flower House's website. "With your help, we hope to raise money to responsibly tear down these houses and repurpose the land for a beautiful flower farm," Waud says. "Join us in giving this house one last hurrah before we tear it down." Waud bought the house at auction for $250, and spent months clearing trash from the property, which delayed Flower House—it was originally planned for May. The preview room Waud and her volunteer crew created was featured in magazines and websites from New York City to Portugal.

The city has taken on blight with seemingly new zeal in the last year, and a report released just last week found that mitigating blighted homes raises property values. Whether Flower House—part of a planned series of similar houses/events—can meet its goals and really make something grow on blighted property remains to be seen. However you look at it, as either grand art or a way to showcase American-grown, sustainably farmed flowers, or as a serious attempt at blight reduction, Flower House will be a spectacle. You should go see it in person.

Tickets for Flower House are $15 a person, and children under 12 get in free (one adult per child). Tours take place Friday, Oct 16 from 10 am-5 pm, Saturday, Oct 17 from 10 am-10 pm, and Sunday, Oct 17 from 9 am-10 pm. Tickets are available on Flower House's website.

·Pot & Box's Downtown Home for the Summer Looks Great [Curbed Detroit]
·Florists Covered This Abandoned Detroit House in 4,000 Blooms [Curbed National]
·Blossoms against blight: Hamtramck's Flower House opens this weekend [Model D]
·The Flower House [Flower House]
·Blight Blitz Linked to Rising Detroit Property Values [Curbed Detroit]