Smiling Sunflowers Greet Summit Shoppers

There is a deeply personal story behind the hundreds of sunflowers stretching skyward throughout downtown Summit.

John Irons doesn’t just live in town, he is “Summit through and through,” he said, born at Overlook and member of the SHS Class of 1985.

Years ago, he said, he gave a friend a bouquet of sunflowers for her 21st birthday, and they quickly became “her favorite flower and her passion.” Diagnosed with breast cancer at 34, she was widowed at 35, became a single mother of two and lost her struggle with cancer at age 41.

“Her passing affected me deeply,” Mr. Irons said, “and I was left to grieve and make sense of things, so I decided to create something beautiful and positive as a memorial to her and a way to honor the children she left behind. Thus the ‘Summit sunflowers’ were born.” When the effort began, he noted the pleasure they brought to so many residents and visitors, especially children, “so it just grew from there and became as much a gift to the town as a memorial to my friend, Cheryl Barbara Wendt.”

Mr. Irons said Dylan Baker from Summit House saw “me planting one evening. After I told him my story, he was touched and told me about the painting by Kelsey Montague being commissioned (on the wall of BarBacoa) and promised to have her add a sunflower in honor of Cheryl.” Upon completion of that mural, Mr. Irons said he was “shocked and delighted that the sunflowers became the largest element of the mural.”

Mr. Irons has also been incorporating mixed wildflowers, he said, “wherever I find a bare patch of dirt that is calling out for some love. I understand the little strip next to the exit of the Bank Street lot made quite an internet splash as well this year.” He described his effort as “a small gift to my hometown” as the world emerged from a long Covid winter, and noted his 300 Alley flowers are a colorful backdrop to the patio at Bull & Bear Brewery and for the city’s weekly farmers’ market.

“I am friendly with the brewery owners,” Mr. Irons said, “and I have ambitions to expand as permitted.” For 2021, he planted from last year’s dead heads and estimated he purchased “4,000 seeds of mixed variety…the attrition rate to birds, etc., is rather high, however, and I guess maybe I have 200 plants out there this year.” He does the maintenance himself, and credited fellow gardener Beth Welsh from Bassett Associates as “the one who really pushed me to start working with SDI and the town.”

Mr. Irons has no plans to retire his trowels and watering can any time soon. He said, “I am always looking for some patches of earth that need some love, and I already have some in mind for next year.”