SIGOURNEY — Fifty-seven small towns requested recognition as “Best Bloomin’ Town” in the state, but Our Iowa magazine chose only one: Sigourney.

According to the publishers of Our Iowa, some of their 150,000 regular readers “will surely want to come for a personal look at what makes Sigourney so bloomin’ pretty… which should yield more traffic for local businesses.”

The winner will be announced in the June-July issue. The entry was made by the New Sigourney Garden Club, headed by the efforts of Mary Abrahamson.

The $2,000 prize will be used to complete plans the club has for its “Bring Color to Sigourney” program.

According to Our Iowa editor Jerry Wiebel, the judges concluded that Sigourney’s entry personified the contest’s specified goal —“to pretty up main street” — better than any of the submissions from 56 other small towns.

“We liked the club’s solid plan for the town’s main street, but what particularly impressed us was the club’s ‘Rent a Pot’ program,” said Wiebel. “We think it offers potential for other communities across the state who could emulate it.”

Abrahamson told The Courier she’d seen the rent-a-pot program in another town, knew the Sigourney square needed some color and also knew the FFA was looking for educational opportunities.

So last year the club sent out letters to all the business owners in Sigourney, asking them to help “Bring color to Sigourney” by renting a 20-inch container for $35 each.

That gave the garden club enough money to plant flowers at the courthouse, bringing that color to the square.

“I hope people in [other towns will pick up] this program,” she said, adding, “It’s not really hard, it just takes a little bit of logistics.”

In fact, Abrahamson claims no great experience as a gardener. But she does admit she has good organizational skills — and supportive businesses and schools.

After 44 businesses signed on, the club partnered with FFA students in Keota and Sigourney High Schools — they planted all the flowers, cared for them, then delivered the pots.

After that, each business was responsible for watering and weeding based on guidelines provided by the club. When the flowers faded in October, the club replaced them with fall mums for “a splash of fall color.”

“We’re getting ready to do it again next Wednesday,” said Abrahamson, “but instead of 55 containers [ordered], we have 78 this year.”

In southeast Iowa, the communities of Bonaparte and Chariton were two of five Iowa towns receiving an honorable mention in the contest.