Look to your left and you’ll spot a massive, colorful clockface planted right into the slope, spelling out “KENTUCKY” with more flowers than most folks have in their entire garden-if the hands are as long as a pickup truck, you’re at the right place.
Now, if you thought telling time was just a matter of glancing at your phone, Frankfort would kindly like to remind you: why not use 10,000 flowers and a 15-foot-long hour hand instead? The Floral Clock behind the State Capitol isn’t just a timepiece-it’s Frankfort’s answer to “go big or go home.” Here’s how it all grew (pun intended).
Back in 1961, Governor Bert Combs saw a fancy floral clock in Edinburgh, Scotland, and decided Kentucky deserved its own. Combs dipped into the state’s wallet-about $50,000, which would be nearly half a million dollars today-to build what was quickly dubbed “Combs’ Folly” by his rivals. The state teamed up with the Garden Club of Kentucky, who probably didn’t mind being given a few tons of begonias and a blank check.
Opponents rolled their eyes-imagine political debates featuring not taxes, but timekeeping petunias. The most vocal critic was A.B. “Happy” Chandler, who threw out quips like, “It’s two petunias past the jimson weed,” instead of “half past two." But the joke was on them. Folks from all over came to gawk at the spectacle; soon, the clock was Frankfort’s unofficial must-see sight.
Stand here and you’ll see its 34-foot diameter face tilting toward you at 26 degrees. Those gigantic hands weigh about as much as a motorbike and sweep over thousands of vibrant blooms-many of them Joseph’s coat and begonias-planted in soil nurtured in state greenhouses just down the road.
The whole thing floats above a pool of water-yep, you can toss in a coin and make a wish. For decades, the “wishing well” money funded things like gym gear for kids or scholarships for budding landscape designers. Today, the pool’s treasure haul still gives local horticulture students a leg up.
Ready for the next chapter? When you’re set, Jesse R. Zeigler House is a 7-minute walk northwest.
