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Plastic & Pink Garden Decor Love them or hate them, the plastic pink flamingo is an American icon that is here to stay. This easily recognized piece of lawn art began its history in 1957, when they were first created by Don Featherstone of Union Products in Leominster, Massachusetts. Even today Union Products sells planters, birdbaths and miscellaneous plastic critters, but boasts about being the home of the original plastic pink flamingo. If you have a fondness for flamingos in your garden, you may be one of thousands that flock to stores to purchase these colorful birds each year. Made from durable plastic, despite your neighbors ill wishes, they seem to last forever. Although there may be anti-plastic pink flamingo groups or individuals that use them for practical jokes, there will always be enough plastic pink flamingo fans to keep the love alive. It takes a special kind of person to tuck a bright plastic pink flamingo into their landscape. Thank goodness, not many have what it takes. Not to ruffle feathers but even Michelangelo's David would look rather tacky if erected on every other lawn. |
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| Since 1957, the look of the plastic pink flamingo hasn't changed dramatically unless you visit the Quad City Botanical Center during their Flamingo Follies. For the entire month of July the botanical building and grounds are swarmed by plastic pink flamingos. I use the word "pink" loosely since so many of the flamingos hardly resemble their 1957 relatives. The objective: take one plastic pink flamingo, an imagination and a bit of artistry to create one of the most bizarre & delightful plastic "pink" flamingos ever seen. There is a lot of hard work and talent involved in the show and afterwards the inventive flamingos are auctioned off. Proceeds help sustain the Quad City Botanical Center. |
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So if you think that plastic pink flamingos are a thing of the past, I'm here to tell you it isn't so. There will always be someone out there whose idea of beauty is a pink plastic bird standing among their red petunias. |
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News Alert: RIP: Pink Flamingo, 1957-2006
"The pink plastic flamingo, a Florida-inspired icon that has been reviled as kitschy bad taste and revered as retro cool, is dead at age 49."