Color and concrete: Derby horticulture team brings ‘southern feel’ to Churchill Downs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Throughout the year, a team of just 10 horticulturists decorate and maintain the expansive grounds of Churchill Downs.

“Roughly 190 acres is what we take care of,” Director of Horticulture Matt Bizzel said. “It’s a sea of concrete and brick, so we are trying to bring as much color and softness and tropical feel, kind of bring in a southern feel to the facilities.”

Working on the Downs horticulture team was not always Bizzel’s plan for life, but after joining the team at 22, he never looked back. Since then, he has gone from being a part of the team to leading it, from putting plants in the ground to bringing his own designs to life on the grounds.

“It is wonderful to be a part of something so big and so important to the city and to horse racing,” Bizzel said. “It also changes all the time, so every season we’re doing something different.”

Bizzel and his team of nine work out of an inconspicuous greenhouse at the back corner of Churchill Downs. The work they do under its glass walls happens year-round, all in preparation for the city’s premier racing event.

They grow hundreds of varieties of plants from plugs and cuts into blossoming roses, begonias and more.

“It might change a little bit as the plants grow and you see the colors that you wanted to go together don’t work as well, I will make adjustments to it,” Bizzel explained. “But Churchill leaves it up to me, and I get to do pretty much whatever I want to.”

All of his planning gets into the ground as soon as Kentucky’s temperamental weather gives them a break, somewhere between the late winter freezes and the tornado-prone thunderstorms. That means the active planting process basically happens overnight.

“We are putting 1,600 to 1,700 plants in the ground basically in a two-week period to get ready for Opening Night,” Bizzel said.

As Churchill Downs continues to make additions to the grounds, designing for all 190 acres has become more difficult but also more exciting. For some areas, Bizzel gets inspired to try something new. The new addition of the starting gate pavilion, for instance, looks much different than anywhere else on the grounds.

Still, some things will never change. A sea of pink will always be the vision for the fillies of the Oaks.

As for all things Derby, traditions abound. Brilliant, “patriotic red” geraniums have been the flower of choice for the Winner’s Circle since the late 1980s.

“It’s something that we’ve used for a very long time. Just a floriferous geranium,” explained Bizzel. “A lot of times you see all the people standing around the horse, they’re standing in the red geraniums, too. But they just won the Kentucky Derby, so they are not worried about the red geraniums.”

Bizzel does not expect that to change any time soon.