Meet the guerrilla gardener behind all those daffodils popping up in Santa Rosa

When fall moves into winter, and nights are longer and colder, Paul Miller typically leaves work in downtown Santa Rosa to darkened skies.

And puts in another round of work.

Not the kind of work he does as an estate attorney, but the kind of work he does as an enthusiastic hobby gardener.

But Miller doesn’t do his gardening in his own backyard or in raised beds on his property.

He does it in the slivers of dirt between parking lots and sidewalks, in weedy medians that divide busy streets, and in the barren roadsides beneath highway overpasses.

In the places no one anticipates experiencing beauty, or color even, Miller quietly leaves his mark.

“It’s just an unexpected burst of beauty in an unexpected place,” he said. “No one expects to see a curtain of sunflowers or a sea of daffodils in a big parking lot full of concrete.”

He’s been doing this for years.

About five years ago, Miller was outed as the guy behind the sunflowers that bloomed on the edges of the parking lot bordered by South E and Second and Third streets.

His handiwork in those parts also included a bed of cosmos, tomatoes and basil just outside the door of his law offices.

A city worker recognized him as the guy tending the plot on public property, and Miller was certain the jig was up.

But alas, instead of shutting down what Miller called his “guerrilla garden,” the city ran a bit of regular water to it, added some top soil and otherwise legitimized the effort.

So Miller kept going.

This time with daffodil bulbs. And the areas he hit stretched wider still.

“About three years ago, I started small, about 1,000 bulbs,” he said.

The next year, he upped his order to 3,000 bulbs from a daffodil distributor out of Holland.

This year?

Twenty boxes, each containing 500 bulbs, arrived on a pallet on his driveway three months ago.

“My mom says I don’t do anything in half measures,” he said with a chuckle.

Kathy Miller was right. That’s a goodly number of perennials. Miller estimates he spends between $3,000-$4,000 on bulbs this season.

“It’s like Christmas when it arrives in October,” Miller said.

Outfitted with an orange safety vest and carrying a small, teal tool bag with extra drill batteries and auger tips, Miller started in November making his way around the streets he typically drives to work.

Moving methodically, he’d drill a small hole in the dirt, drop a bulb in, cover the spot with soil and move a few inches one way or another and dig again.

Over and over again.

There are now thousands of bright yellow daffodils sprouting from the medians that run down the middle of Brookwood Avenue between Fourth Street and Sonoma Avenue.

There are still more sprouting up under Highway 101 at both Brookwood Avenue and South E Street.

Flowers are popping up at the base of street trees on Second and Third streets.

Those two triangle-shaped pieces of greenery where College Avenue dead ends into Fourth Street? Miller has hit those spots too.

In fact, way back, those were some early targets of his vision.

Years ago he brought his boys, today 15 and almost 12, and tapped them to help.

“They were more into throwing bulbs at each other and kicking dirt, so we put a pause on it,” he said.

Today it’s clear that it’s dad’s thing. And that’s fine by Miller.

“On weekends, afternoons that I have free, or in the evening, I’ll do this,” he said. “It’s very meditative. It’s very calming.”

And Miller has heard nary a criticism for his rogue efforts. No one yelling at him to get off the city’s proverbial lawn.

After all, daffodils require little to no care once they are in the ground.

They can be mowed and they’ll come back. They can be ignored and they’ll come back.

They are the perfect urban bloomer, Miller said.

“They are so simple. They are idiot-proof,” he said. “They’ll bloom no matter what.”

Plus, he just delights in seeing them. And he’s heartened by the signals of spring.

“I know what’s coming and I really do know that there are brighter days ahead,” he said.

And those feelings are better when shared, he said.

“People have asked me, ‘Your backyard must look amazing,’” he said. “Nope, it doesn’t. I put my efforts out here.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.