The green thumbs of Trish Bottorff, Chris Neorr, Jean Keogh and Barbara Nagel are on display about 40,000 times a day. That’s the approximate number of times that vehicles pass the landscaped traffic triangle at Maple Valley Highway and Southeast 231st Street.

There’s no telling how many sets of motorists’ eyes actually gaze upon the plants and flowers that the four members of Late Bloomers Garden Club fuss over. That doesn’t matter much to the ladies, just as long as people enjoy a brief visual respite from the asphalt jungle.

“We hope they like having something pretty to drive by,” Nagel said.

The spot is most colorful during the spring and summer, when hundreds of yellow daffodils are in bloom, but its volunteer crew tends to it every month for two to four hours – whatever it takes to keep the mixture of perennials and groundcover plants looking sharp. The ladies, sometimes accompanied by their husbands, park their cars in a nearby lot and then walk to the triangle, where they work while traffic whizzes by.

“Thank you for noticing,” Neorr told an observer during one of their latest work parties.

The club, which has membership meetings at Covington Library, bought flowers with a Make a Difference Day grant in 2007. Initial costs were about $300, “not affordable for our little club,” said Nagel, the group’s president.

Blackeye Susan, primrose, lavender, liatris and flowering strawberry are among the plants, some of which were donated from members’ own gardens. Gardening supplies are paid for by the club.

The club has help with the year-round project. The city of Maple Valley provides bark for the flower beds and gravel for the pathways that meander through the triangle. And because the site is part of a state highway, the Washington Department of Transportation erected a sign recognizing the club’s efforts. The latter includes “moral support” from members who aren’t able to lend a hand, Nagel noted.