Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
D.R., Roanoke County
A: Democrats have held the majority since the 1883 election, if you go by names.
That's the year a party using Democrat in its title carried the legislative elections for the first time since the Civil War. In previous elections they had called themselves Conservatives.
For the previous four years the state had been governed by the Readjustors, a party headed by William Mahone - who also built an east-west railroad that would become part of the Norfolk Southern.
Mahone, though, got into the U.S. Senate and voted with the Republicans there. That established him as a traitor in the eyes of Reconstruction-weary Virginians, opening the door for his opposition to re-establish itself as the Democratic Party in 1883.
The Democrats also carried Virginia in the 1884 election for president and Congress, and the following year they solidified their control of the Virginia House 72-28 and the Senate 29-11.
That monopoly on power continued for 85 years, until Linwood Holton broke the Democrats' grip on Virginia politics by winning the governor's office under the Republican banner in 1969.
A party using the Republican name last controlled the Virginia legislature in 1869, when the state was under martial law and ex-Confederate soldiers couldn't vote. The party's full name: Radical Republicans.
If you want the true nature of Virginia's electoral preferences, though, look to the name the Democrats used first: Conservative.
Source of statistics: ``Virginia, The New Dominion,'' by Virginius Dabney.
Blooming medians
Q: I'm interested in the wildflowers the Virginia Department of Transportation plants in the medians. What are they, where can I get seed, and what kind of growing conditions do they need?
S.K., Roanoke
A: If you mean the red-pink-white beds that are blooming now, those are corn poppies - and they don't contain any ingredients worth stopping to pick.
They are there for two reasons: as an alternative to mowing and for the aesthetic benefits.
The Transportation Department buys its wildflower seed by low bid from suppliers in Texas, Arizona and California.
You might find a supplier locally among landscape-product dealers, but wildflowers are not widely commercial.
These flowers don't need much care; that's why they were selected. No fertilizer was applied, and even if it were used, only a small amount of 5-10-5 would be scattered on the beds, said Darrell Bower of the Transportation Department.
Bower says the dry spring didn't help the flowers, but they're definitely low-maintenance.
Two other varieties in bloom along the highways are purple danes rockets and oxeye daisies, which are white with a yellow center.
Later in the summer, look for tickseed, some black-eyed susans, and cosmos - in the purple-and-pink variety and also yellow.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB