The Daffodils and DayLilies program provides residents and visitors of the Greater Cincinnati area with a beautiful, summer-long show of color along the city's highways. The program, which began in 1999, continues to be a partnership between Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB), the Cincinnati Park Board, and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). To date, we have planted 100,000 daffodils and 20,000 daylilies as well as numerous bushes and trees. Our goal is to plant one million daffodils by Ohio's bicentennial in 2003.

This program is made possible through generous donations from individuals, corporations, and public funds. Cincinnati Water Works provides us with the means to reach their over 210,000 customers by inserting an envelope in their quarterly billing statements. The envelope asks for just one dollar to help plant daffodils and daylilies along the highways. Over 3,000 customers donated through these envelopes. Corporate sponsors include Cincinnati Ready Mix Concrete, Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers, Groundmasters, Rockdale Temple, Automated Machinery Inc. and the Zaring Family Foundation.

Volunteers help with planting in the fall to celebrate Make A Difference Day and in the spring for a beautification component of the Great American Cleanup. The volunteers are led by Park Board staff and volunteers from the Ohio State University Extension Master Gardeners program. Though we have many veteran gardeners, we welcome the volunteers who have never planted a bulb! Not only do volunteers come away with the feeling that they have served the community, but also a new knowledge of how to best prepare soil and properly plant perennials or bushes.