By Micah Choquette
The first official Petunia Festival Poster, created specifically for the inaugural event coming up on July 8th, was officially unveiled during a Sapulpa Times Facebook Live show on Monday, June 12th:
The poster, created by local artist Russell Crosby, will be available for purchase at the festival in limited quantities, and some will be autographed.
Crosby is no stranger to artistic depictions of downtown Sapulpa, and a lot of his work can be found in some highly-visible areas, such as the westward-facing wall of the Sapulpa Historical Society Museum on East Lee Avenue, or even more popular, the series of paintings that surround the ceiling of the lobby at the Sapulpa Post Office, telling the history of Sapulpa from its days as Indian Territory up to recent events.
The post office paintings were done around two decades ago, but Crosby has been an active painter much longer than that. “I’ve been doing it for about 65 years, at this point,” he said during the Facebook Live video.
Known for his bright colors and affinity for including real people in his artwork, Crosby pointed to a girl in one of the classic cars in the painting. “That one’s my daughter, Brean,” he said, and a moment later, pointed to one of the cars and said, “and that one is Don Diehl’s ‘Maybellene'”—Diehl wrote about his 1950 Ford in the May 24th edition of the ‘Herald, in case you were wondering.
Aside from the pink petunias adorning the painting, if you look closely, you’ll find little mementos of Crosby’s, like the turtle crossing the road. “And of course, Kent’s flowers,” he said.
Kent Daniel, Sapulpa’s petunia extraordinaire and all-around horticulture specialist, was on hand to talk about the Sapulpa Chamber’s upcoming Business Over Breakfast event on Thursday, where he would be the guest speaker.
“We’re going to be talking about the progression over the last five years of the petunia program, and we’ll provide some tips on caring for petunias and flowers in this heat,” he said.
Daniel has largely been responsible for turning Sapulpa’s petunia showcase into a state-wide phenomenon, drawing in visitors from other cities all across the Sooner State, as well as agriculture enthusiasts from Oklahoma State University Extension offices in multiple counties to learn more about how Kent Daniels has kept his flowers alive in the weeks of triple-digit heat that Oklahoma is notorious for.
“That’s the number one comment we get right now, is how did we keep them alive. We pray a lot,” he said, smiling.
Kent Daniel said there will also be a Q & A session if time allows. The Business Over Breakfast Event happens on Thursday morning at 7:30am and will take place this time at Wimpy’s Sandwich Shoppe, located at 18 N. Mission. The price is $15 for Chamber members and non-chamber members alike. A buffet-style breakfast will be provided.
