“I never could match my mother,” he said, referring to Gertrude (Morley) Barnard’s beautiful flowers. “She had dahlias about eight inches across.”

He said his grow to be about five to six inches across.

He and his wife Pat Barnard’s garden was one of two selected in August to be featured in the Alpena Garden Club’s “You’ve Been Bloomed” garden recognition program. The program features notable gardens of people who are not members of the garden club.

The Barnards’ garden, at 109 S. 12th Ave., features flowers of many colors, including variations of pink, red, white, peach, purple, yellow and more. Throughout the season, their garden features roses, hollyhocks, gladiolas, bleeding hearts, peonies, petunias, dahlias, cosmos and geraniums.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Above is a photo of 169 E. Birch St., on the corner of Birch and Ford Avenue, one of two gardens chosen in August by the Alpena Garden Club’s “You’ve Been Bloomed” recognition program.

“I enjoy flowers, and people enjoy them too as they go by,” Harold Barnard said. “A few flowers improves the whole neighborhood.”

He said hollyhocks, tall flowers in a variation of pink shades, are hardy but take two years to grow. Many of them decorated his front yard in August.

“They grow very deep, about two feet deep,” he said. “Hollyhock are also known as alley flowers. There’s a lot of seeds to every pod. They have different strains, and different colors.”

He has had deep purple, yellow, and even black ones. His roses come in many shades as well.

“Roses are very hardy,” he added. “We had a yellow one and a red one on the same bush this year.”

Above is a pink and white rose from Harold and Pat Barnard’s flower garden at 109 S. 12th Ave. in Alpena.

His granddaughters Kara and Sara Brilinski planted the flowers this year.

Here is a yellow, peach and red rose from the Barnards' garden.