Published on June 18, 2020

The Hope Garden tulips planted at Cape Elizabeth schools are in bloom and assuring us of better days ahead.

"I know things may seem bleak at times, but it is efforts like this that inspire and give us all something to look forward to annually as these tulips will endeavor year after year as a message of hope," said Town Manager Matthew Sturgis, who photographed the gardens the afternoon of May 18, 2020.

The gardens were planted in the fall of 2018 and bloomed for the first time last spring, in concert with the "You Will Be Found .. @CEMS" initiative sponsored by The Thompson Family Mental Health Initiative & The Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation. This season, with students distance learning amid the COVID-19 emergency, the tulips have bloomed again.

The rogue red tulip in the garden of gold also reminds us to expect the unexpected in life, Sturgis said.

Tulips in bloom at the entrance to Cape Elizabeth Middle School