ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The pansy bed at Highland Park has been a Rochester tradition for more than 120 years. What will the design look like this year?

News10NBC got a first look at this year’s design, which honors Rochester’s status as an Erie Canal city. For more than a century, Highland Park has been home to vibrant, creative pansy bed designs in the shape of flags, pinwheels, smiley faces, and the word “hope” at the height of the pandemic.

News10NBC visited the park and spoke with Mark Quinn, the superintendent of horticulture for Monroe County Parks, who said this year’s design will be a compass.

“This year’s design is going to be some compass points. It’s a compass rosette, actually three of them in there,” Quinn said.

The design will honor 200 years of navigating the Erie Canal.

“So we do best when we do geometric designs and the compass points make really nice geometric designs,” Quinn said.

The Parks Department grows roughly 23,000 pansies every year. Between 1,500 to 1,800 of them make it into the display.

“So when they’re ready and the weather’s good, we’ll rototill the bed and they’ll take a bunch of forms and lay out the design and then they start planting,” Quinn said. “It takes anywhere from maybe three to four days to maybe a week and a half depending on how many people are working.”

The beds are usually planted in late April and they typically last just through the end of May.

If you’ve never seen the pansies, they’re located at the corner of South Goodman Street and Highland Avenue. If the weather cooperates, they’re usually in bloom just in time for the Lilac Festival.

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