Why throw away good flowers?

Every morning on my way to school, I pass the big "M" on East Parkway. i really enjoy seeing all the colorful pansies on the hill. This morning when I drove by though, I was astounded to see three city workers pulling up all the flowers. I asked myself, why is the city of Memphis wasting time and money tearing up perfectly good flowers. The flowers were in full bloom and could have stayed there for quite some time and be very pretty. There are so many other parts of Memphis that could use sprucing up instead of that section of east Parkway which is already beautiful. The only explanation I can think of is that's it's on a section of street tourists would drive down to go to the various sights in midtown and downtown. I still think it's such a waste of time and money.