If April showers bring the flowers, what do May monsoons do? Make pulling weeds go quicker.

Or at least that’s what volunteers for the Ironton city wide cleanup hope will happen this Saturday. By 9 a.m. those wanting to help the beautification efforts of Ironton in Bloom will gather on South Second Street to weed, clean up and do some planting along city streets.

And while Ironton is blossoming with new flowers, volunteers will hit the highways and back roads of the rest of the county for another cleanup effort.

Right now there are 849 volunteers who have signed up with the Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste District as part of its local version of the Great American Cleanup. The cleanup is part of Keep America Beautiful, which is providing 3,000 litter bags and 1,500 bottles of water for the workers. The district will give away T-shirts.

“We have groups virtually in any place in the county from 9 to noon,” Dan Palmer of the district, said. “From students to seniors, civic groups, 4-H groups, Boy Scout troops.”

Volunteers are still needed and they can contact the solid waste district to join.

“Contact us, if you want to do a place, some may have already taken it,” Palmer said. “In the eastern end, TLC is working and they can always use additional help.”

Rome, Union and Lawrence Township trustees will provide roll off containers in their areas.

During the cleanup Ironton in Bloom will have annuals and perennials for sale by plant, in flats and in pots ready for Mother’s Day gifts. There will be petunias, geraniums, zinnias, lantana, purple salvia, red and white begonias, pink impatiens, ruby mountain grass and red canna bulbs.

“These flowers are coming from the flowers we are going to be planting in our big pots,” Carol Allen of IIB, said. “In addition to the separate plants, we will have wire square floor planters and wire hanging baskets. Some will have petunias. Some begonias.”

There will also be framed floral photographs by local artist Woody Christian, who is caretaker of the gardens at First Presbyterian Church, and picket fence planters by Mike Pearson, also of Ironton.

“They stand three feet tall and you can put tomato plants in them,” Allen said. “It is for someone who wants to do minimal gardening but wants to look stylish.”

All money raised will go toward buying and maintaining the floral arrangements throughout the city. The sale will run from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Another upcoming IIB fundraiser will be the second annual Backyard Tour of Ironton gardens, Sunday, July 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. Tickets, which go on sale after Memorial Day, are $10.

“There will be seven gardens, all through Ironton,” Allen said. “What we have done this year is locate some in the southern end of the town and the north end and one can walk to those in that one area.”