Syosset High School

The fifth installation brings the project home. Aidan Ellis, now a senior at Syosset High School, coordinated this planter from the first sketch to planting day with the support of the school's Environmental Club. It stands beside the red Syosset High School sign on South Woods Road, where every student, parent, and bus passes it twice a day.

All of the artwork is Aidan's. The planter is Corten weathering steel, which is meant to rust: over the first year or two it will darken from raw gray to a deep, even orange-brown patina that seals and protects the metal underneath. Mounted on its face is Aidan's laser-cut aluminum plaque, a new design with a coneflower seed head in silhouette, the Pollinate Happiness lettering, and a bee at the corner. The aluminum will stay bright as the box behind it weathers, so the artwork gets more striking every season.

On September 28, 2026 the Environmental Club turned out in force to haul soil, fill the planter, and set in purple coneflower and black-eyed Susan, two Long Island natives that feed bees and butterflies through summer and goldfinches in fall, along with mums for color through the first autumn. The club has adopted the planter and will water it, deadhead it, and leave the seed heads standing through winter for the birds.

Visiting

• The planter is at the front of the school beside the red Syosset High School sign on South Woods Road, visible from the sidewalk without entering the campus.
• Please visit outside school hours and respect the campus during the school day.
• Best bloom is July through September. From October on, watch the coneflower seed heads for goldfinches.