Brian Daines and his 27 years of growing flowers on campus

For almost 27 years, Brian Daines has been growing and planting the flowers found in the flower beds and gardens all around the campus of Utah State University.

Daines was born and raised in Cache Valley and now lives in Hyde Park. Before taking the job at USU, he worked in a retail greenhouse. Daines’ official title is greenhouse manager, but he refers to himself as “the campus gardener.”

Shane Richards, the Landscape Operations and Maintenance manager at USU, described Daines’ busy job as the greenhouse manager.

“He grows all the annual flowers, which are usually the bright pretty ones all over campus, in a greenhouse,” Richards said. “He usually starts in January or February for the late spring, early summer ones, and then he starts planting again for the fall.”

Although these plants are only on display during the spring and summer months, Daines and his team are working behind the scenes year-round to make it happen.

The process starts in July, when Daines begins to plan out all the flower beds for the upcoming year. He starts by ordering all of the seeds needed for the beds.

In early February, Daines starts growing the flowers in the greenhouse located on the north end of campus. Each week, he plants more, based on the growth time needed.

“In total, we grow about 50,000 to 60,000 annual flowers in the greenhouse every year,” Richards said.

After the frost has passed, Daines and his team prepare all the flower beds, tilling and fertilizing them so they are ready when the flowers are planted in late spring.

The first round of flowers is planted in the spring and enjoyed throughout the summer. At the end of summer, those flowers are removed from the beds. Fall flowers are then planted, staying in for the rest of the year.

This July, Daines planted about 8,600 pansies in the greenhouse. They will be planted in the flowerbeds in early October, after the summer flowers are removed.

Over the years, the way Daines has approached his job has changed quite a bit. He used to try to plant everything he could, but he has learned through trial and error that some flowers just don’t grow well here.

He also has refined how he plans his flower beds, making the process easier over time.

Daines shared how important it is that all the different LOAM crews do their jobs to the best of their abilities, working together to make the landscape around campus look as good as possible.

“You could make beautiful beds and so forth, but if everything else is not looking good — you know, dry spots in the grass or weeds down the street a little bit or something — you’re not going to look as good as you want to,” Daines said.

When asked what his favorite flower on campus was, Daines didn’t have a specific plant come to mind. He prefers to look at the bigger picture.

“When I look at a flower bed and try to come up with a single flower that I like, I don’t see three or four different flowers, I see just one — how they all come together to make just one flower,” Daines said. “I think that is part of the challenge that I take the most personally is trying to accomplish that.”

Daines works hard to bring each individual flower together to make one beautiful flower bed. He sees the beauty in all flowers and is dedicated to sharing it with the whole campus.

“The flower beds are probably the most dynamic and influential in that equation,” Daines said.