By May Day, Cornell will be home to what might just be the first perennial-paved labyrinth in the country, perhaps in the world.

More than 14,000 bulbs -- mixes of daffodils, grape hyacinths and tulips -- went into the ground Nov. 13 to define a walking labyrinth at Cornell's Bluegrass Lane Turf and Landscape Research Center off Warren Road. The labyrinth is a class project in Professor Bill Miller's Herbaceous Plant Materials course, aka Annuals and Perennials (Horticulture 300).

Design and instructions for the hand-dug labyrinth were acquired from the Internet, and the bulbs were donated by the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center. Measuring about 35 feet square, the labyrinth may serve as a model for building labyrinths in public school settings, says Miller.

While the final results will take at least six months to be fully appreciated, the project itself came off quickly. The idea was first presented to Miller only two weeks ago by his colleague Marcia Eames-Sheavly, a senior extension associate in horticulture, who knew Miller was developing innovative educational bulb projects.

"Marcia rolled into my office one day and said, 'Wouldn't building a labyrinth be fun to do?'" recalls Miller. "I thought she was nuts -- it's so late in the semester, we're stressed doing a million other things. But then I realized this would be a great project for class. I think it's unique -- we don't know of any other bulb labyrinths -- and it would give students some experience in thinking about formal landscapes, how big projects like this get done and how much work they are."

Miller's class of 15 undergraduate students followed step-by-step instructions for a classical seven-ring Cretan labyrinth from the Web site, Labyrinthos, and took direction from Miller when it came to the bulbs, such as digging trenches 8 inches deep and 8 inches wide. "It was deceptively simple, that was one of the most interesting things: to see how just how a piece of string and five posts pounded into the ground can produce such a lovely pattern," says Miller.

Labyrinths, which unlike mazes have no dead ends but are a single circuitous path that winds to the center -- stem from an ancient, contemplative tradition that are undergoing a renaissance of sorts throughout the country, according to labyrinth Web sites that list at least 150 hospitals and an untold number of colleges, parks, churches, prisons and spas now hosting permanent labyrinths.

"According to what I've read, you start walking and you contemplate life, your destiny and the path you're taking and at the center of the course, you're presumably at the end, but in fact, you're only half way and must go back the same path but you have a different experience [on the way back]," Miller said.

"Now that we've done this the first time, it makes one realize it's not an impossible thing to do," says Miller. "These things could be done by all sorts of groups, the concept is that ultimately this is a demonstration project that somehow might be adaptable for children in public school settings."