There may be green in the hanging baskets and pots that decorate downtown Ironton each spring and summer.

But for the organization that has made the outdoor decorations possible for the past five years, green is just what they are lacking right now.

“We are really short of cash,” Carol Allen, co-chair of Ironton in Bloom, said.

“We have sent a letter out asking those who have donated in the past to donate again. We really need the money.”

The roots of the shortfall stem from increased expenses from a new supplier and cuts in community donations.

“We are short in OPT sponsors who are no longer able to meet their pledges,” the IIB letter states. “In 2014 IIB received $10,500 from individual and small business donations and this year we have only received $5,300.”

Until this year Mamaw’s Nursery, a business owned by former county engineer Doug Cade, supplied all flowers and maintenance. However Cade took a post in Findlay and closed down the nursery.

Cost from the new supplier increased by $7,500 primarily for maintenance.

In April Allen asked Ironton City Council to have a guarantee of $10,000 in its annual budge for IIB. In the past the council has made a one-time donation to IIB.

This spring council agreed to put the organization in the budget at $3,000.

That is almost double the amount the city gave last year to IIB that brought in $41,393 in funding and spent $40,328.15.

“We have had some major increases in costs but we had them covered,” Allen said. “Then two of our major sponsors who gave us $2,500 are not able to pay us this year. We are trying to let the public know we could use their financial support.”