Several agenda items were discussed and some dates were set for this year’s Ironton In Bloom (IIB) events at a planning meeting on Tuesday.

“It’s the time when we get together and make plans for the year,” Carol Allen, IIB president, said. “We got some things decided but we have lots more to do. We are going to be busy this year.”

The group’s intentions for Arbor Day this year will be the traditional planting of trees, but with a slight twist.

“We are going to walk around downtown and pinpoint dead trees,” Allen said. “We are still in the planning phase for this event because we have to see how much it’s going to cost.”

The costs will be associated with IIB’s working with the City of Ironton to get the dead trees extricated. IIB would then replace them with new trees.

“It just doesn’t look good when dead trees are visible while everything else is blooming,” Allen said.

IIB’s Mother’s Day Flower Sale will be May 10 at the parking lot on Second and Vernon streets; the lot adjacent to where the Ironton Farmers Market is held. May 10 is also the day IIB will put flowers out around the community.

The backyard gardens tour will be June 22 and the regional gardening club, comprised of the Ironton and Rock Hill clubs, will have a booth set up at the Ohio University Southern Mains Rotunda during the District Garden Club Meeting on Thursday, April 17.

“We want to show other garden clubs what we have been doing to beautify the community,” Allen said. “Our hope is that other clubs will see what we are doing and take our ideas and use them as their own like decorating the entrances to the city, planting trees or putting flowers downtown. Hopefully that meeting can help different gardening groups work together.”

The meeting will take place during the day but a time has not been determined.

IIB will also conduct festivals the second Saturday of the month in conjunction with the farmers market. May’s event will be IIB’s flower sale and June’s event will center on strawberries in some fashion. “The rest is a work in progress,” Allen said.

“We are working on a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the garden club to sit on our table wherever we go and we will use it as something to show others if we attend other meetings,” Allen said. “We are also developing a tri-fold display recapping 2013.”

The tri-fold display will highlight the groups that support IIB.

“It’s important for people to know where our money comes from and where it’s going,” she said.

The next meeting has been set for 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the city center in Ironton.