It takes a village — and 2 miles of ribbon — to paint Macon pink

Take a drive around Macon this time of year and you’ll see swaths of pink zip past you — from storefront windows framed by a trail of painted cherry blossoms to clusters of pink florals unfurling on rear windshields.

This is how a community celebrates more than 350,000 Yoshino cherry trees about to bloom.

Pink ribbons adorn front doors and mailboxes while pink parasols hang from glowing lights strung above the streets of downtown — all rosy reminders of the International Cherry Blossom Festival that garners thousands of visitors each year.

But a whole city doesn’t become the poster child of pink overnight. It takes dedicated community members to paint Macon pink.

Swapping red for pink

Behind Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, cherry blossom season is the busiest time of year for Lawrence Mayer Florist & Flower Delivery in downtown Macon, according to florist Cora Wallington.

Wallington and her colleagues created nearly 500 dozen rose arrangements during last month’s love fest. These days, they’ve swapped red for pink.

“We’ve got a lot of pink in right now, and it’s just going to get pinker and pinker the closer we get,” Wallington said.

She said there are a “lot of mechanics” involved in the art and science of flower arranging. Wallington’s workspace, located in the rear of the store, is a tangled jungle of greenery and loose flower snippets.

Armed with a sharp pair of pruners, she uses chicken wire, tape and foam to bring her ornate arrangements to life. She said the shop historically sells around 40 bows, 10-20 wreaths and 50 flower arrangements during Macon’s pink season.

Bows, buttons and decades of blooms

Shirley May, a Macon resident since 1966, has attended every iteration of the city’s Cherry Blossom Festival, which first bloomed in 1982.

“I can’t imagine Macon without the cherry blossoms,” she said. “It’s a holiday for me.”

She was even once crowned “senior queen,” a title denoting festival royalty. Now, she spends much of the early part of each year working with fellow volunteers on the “Think Pink” promotional committee to make decorative pink bows.

That task, she estimated, takes about 4,000 yards of ribbon a year. (That’s more than 2 miles of ribbon, by the way.)

May can now make, on average, five bows an hour. Some years, she’s made as many as 300, but for this year, her creations will number around 50. The committee sells the individual bows for $5.

Despite the endless rolls of pink ribbon that dominate her home from January to March, she keeps her own decorations simple, hanging only a couple of wreaths. Keeping them company are trinkets from past festivals — a framed photo of May in her pink sash and sparkling crown and her collection of cherry blossom pins (one reading “Pink is the New Green”) and commemorative buttons.

The items serve as reminders of the festival’s immense growth over the years, May added.

A design that doubles as a tribute

Artist Debbie Grove’s work spans murals, pet portraits and reclaimed furniture art.

She said her work with chinoiserie — the Asian-inspired motif expressed in the popular blue-and-white porcelain pattern — caught the attention of Cherry Blossom Festival organizers. They invited her to design the 2024 festival pin and to return to design this year’s version.

Her 2026 design features Macon landmarks — the Hay House, Saint Joseph Catholic Church and Hotel Forty-Five, among others — under the sweeping canopy of a cherry tree in full bloom. Festival-goers can purchase the pins online and in downtown Macon businesses. 

“Every time I think of cherry blossoms, I think of downtown [Macon],” she said.

Designing the festival pin is more than just an art project for Grove. It’s also a chance to memorialize her mother, who died on March 3, 2024. Grove’s mother collected every year’s official pin, and family members wore them to her funeral.

Grove said she has many great memories from festivals past, such as the pins carefully collected by her mother, picnics with her daughters at Third Street Park and trips to Wesleyan College to see hot air balloons.

“[The festival] has just gotten bigger and better,” she said. “Macon is what Macon is because of this.”