It's that time of year when evenings turn crisp and the leaves turn yellow.

But on Wichita State’s newly renovated campus, fall is also the time of year when the landscaping department pulls up the summer's green, tropical plants, tills the cooling soil and plants tulip bulbs for the spring season.

And with the construction of Shocker Hall, the renovation of the Rhatigan Student Center and the conversion of Alumni Drive into Alumni Walk distracting from most of the campus’ landscapes for years, the department is now happy to have another clean slate.

“You can tell how big a mess we’ve had the past couple years,” says Arlan Clocke, a Wichita State landscape technician.

New beds have been planted around the Rhatigan Student Center with fragrant sumac and flowering mums, while landscapers continue to maintain dogwoods, yuccas and bald cypress trees planted around Shocker Hall. Grass is now growing where construction crews once worked over trampled grounds.

“It’s got to be combed for debris, construction materials, rock, concrete,” Clocke said. “…We need to get in there and till it, get the ground worked up where it’s been so compacted down by the big equipment.

“We’re usually the last ones to come in after everything’s done.”

The Physical Plant’s mission is to create an environment conducive to learning and research.

“We keep in mind that for the students and faculty, this can be a stressful environment,” said Kari Ossman, a Wichita State landscape technician. “We make sure they can touch, check out the landscape and then resume.”

But Ossman and Clocke agree it’s much more than that.

“To me, it’s the front door to all the prospective students and visitors,” Clocke said.

“Our department is like the first impression,” Ossman said. “We make sure everything is nice and tidy.”

From sowing to blooming

The floral department has been hard at work preparing the soil around campus for the winter and spring seasons. In January or February, Ossman will make final decisions on what kind of plants will be on Wichita State’s campus for the next year.

Twice a year, Ossman said, plants are exchanged for new ones. The tropical plants that adorned the beds over the summer have been relocated to the Physical Plant’s four greenhouses, where Dexter Mardis, equipment operator for the floral department, prunes – or “details” as the department prefers to say – the greenery, some of which has taken a beating in its months on display.

“It’s really important -- not just because it looks ugly,” Mardis said, “but because pests and diseases can get in and spread from there.”

Wichita State is unique, Ossman says, because the university has its own greenhouses where plants are harvested from “sowing to blooming.” Three greenhouses are scattered on Physical Plant property and a third is adjacent to McKinley Hall for storage. (The greenhouse that sits atop Hubbard Hall is for the biology department’s use, Ossman said.)

Ossman follows a seed chart for each species of plant that details when to water, fertilize and relocate to another greenhouse. And after being removed from the beds at the end of a season, each plant is cared for in a greenhouse until its next showcase to the university.

Careful decisions

Every herb, color and species of plant placed on campus is a careful decision.

The department always looks for yellow flowers to match Wichita State’s colors, but those are hard to come by, Ossman said, and marigolds attract spiders.

“We look for things that are durable and like the wind,” she said. “Tropicals do a really good job. We try to add height, texture and fragrance with flowers or herbs.”

Landscapers discovered that red tulips looked best surrounding the Miro mural, which graces the Ulrich Museum of Art’s southern facade. And plants surrounding Millie the millipede tend to have a whimsical, Wizard of Oz or Dr. Seuss theme.

“The Ulrich has summer programs with children, and they might incorporate landscaping in art,” Ossman said. “They make sure there’s herbs that are fragrant. Tomatoes have a really good, strong fragrance. We put things they can touch on the edges and put walkways through the beds.”

Place to learn

Ossman said the department’s ultimate goal is to bring back the community garden to campus.

Originally located north of the Rhatigan Student Center, the garden was forced to close because of construction. The garden, which grew a variety of fruits and vegetables for students to pick and take home each week, was temporarily located at the Corbin Education Center.

Although the plan isn’t official yet, Ossman hopes the garden – expanded with strawberries, rhubarb and other berry bushes -- will be planted on the northeast corner of Ahlberg Hall.

“It will be a place for people to learn; maybe taste,” she said. “Students can come help if they want to participate. It’s fun to watch things grow.”

Clocke says the nature of his job sometimes keeps him from taking a step back to enjoy the final product. He’s the “critic” – always looking for things that needs fixing. But when he travels, he’s able to gain perspective on the team’s accomplishments.

“I’ve been around to other campuses, at K-State and KU,” Clocke said. “Every campus is different -- but our campus is pretty beautiful.”