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FROSTBURG -- The green-thumbed elves of the Frostburg House and Garden Club were on Main Street this week, decorating lamppost planters with holiday greenery.

The club members maintain the planters throughout the year, with flower arrangements on display from spring to first-frost. Come mid-November, the planters are then decorated with pine and other evergreen clippings.

Pictured above, Nancy Crawley, right, and Tess Delaney work on the planter at the corner of Beall's Lane and West Main. One of three planters they transformed Thursday afternoon, the lamppost display includes a variety of greenery, including hemlock, white pine, yew, blue spruce and cedar.

The plantings are as varied as the members who maintain them, with some House and Garden elves also including rhododendron and holly.

Crawley and Delaney worked in below-freezing temperatures, and brought along pots of hot water to help thaw the frozen potting soil in the planter. Starting out with six plastic yard bags full of greenery, the pair used about two bags per planter.

"It takes more than you think," Delaney said.

While the winter plantings require little maintenance, with the cuttings usually retaining their color well beyond the holidays, the summer flowers are labor intensive. In July and August, Crawley said, garden club members are sometimes out daily watering the plants. Delaney said many motorists will toot their horn or yell a "Thank-you!" as they pass, a show of gratitude that the House and Garden Club members appreciate.

The greenery is being put out just in time for the new Christmas light wreaths and displays which now  top Main Street lampposts from Water to Grant. The new wreath displays, which were placed on 44 lampposts by city employees working into the wee hours Thursday morning, were designed and crafted by Frostburg resident Jack Dishong and  Karen Bingman, president of the House and Garden Club. The pair hope to extend the lights eastward on Main Street next year, and beyond in following years.