A DREAM COME TRUE: Wildflowers are set to bloom at the home of Ron and Pam Barnett next week, fulfilling a lifelong promise to Pam.

THOMASVILLE —When Ron Barnett, Professor Emeritus of Agronomy at University of Florida, wanted to retire in a peaceful, wide open space, his wife, Pam had one condition- he plant her wildflowers.

Now, 18 acres of wildflowers are set to bloom next week on their Pavo property.

“Pam has always wanted wildflowers,” Ron said. “It was approaching our sixtieth anniversary and so I promised her I would do it and I went ahead and planted them.”

Being an agronomist, Ron couldn’t just plant any flower.

“I did a little research on what would be the most successful,” Ron said. “I found a wildflower that you plant in October and it blooms on Mother’s Day.”

The Coreopsis basalis or Golden Mane Coreopsis ended up being Ron’s “golden ticket” to Pam’s heart.

However, the beauty of these flowers has been a joy to more than just Pam.

Pam explained that last year her grandson got married on Cinco de Mayo and held the rehearsal dinner on their property. While enjoying dinner, people kept stopping to take photos of the gorgeous wildflowers that engulfed the property.

}“It was just hilarious,” Pam recalled. “Professional photographers began coming out to take photos.”

Not only can passers by see the stunning array of wildflowers, but they can see Ron’s hand grown grains.

“I was a plant breeder working with small, cereal grains, so I would make new varieties that would then be seeded and sold to famers,” Ron explained. “The idea is that they can have an improved variety just by changing the variety they choose.”

Knowing the importance of variety, Ron was very particular in what he chose for Pam’s wildflowers.

“I picked this flower because it’s planted in October when the grass goes dormant and turns brown, and grows through the winter and then in May is when it blooms and reseeds,” Ron said. “I mowed it down to the ground after last year and it reseeded itself.”

Ron’s hope is that it will continue to reseed itself year after year.

This year he is also working with a new plant to add more variety to the wildflower field.

“I haven’t seen much of anything yet, but it is a flox, which is a common wildflower in Texas,” he said. “It’s multicolored and has a lot of diversity, but the trouble is when you let it go to seed, everything else goes to seed as well, including all the weeds.”

The key to managing the weeds is knowing when to mow, though.

As for Pam, she said she is extremely happy with the beautiful wildflowers she gets to see blooming daily, but is open to Ron planting anything, stating he recently found some wild blueberry plants growing, so they dug it up.

“We just enjoy having it for the wildlife,” Ron said.

More than just the wildlife, Ron and Pam both did enjoy seeing the happiness the flowers brought others last year, so they have announced the flowers are set to bloom next week, and people are more than welcome to drive by again and snap pictures. They are located on Salem Rd. in Pavo, Georgia.