THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230503
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER CHRISTMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUCK LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Jim Conners has a wild idea blooming.
To satisfy his curiosity about wildflowers, the Outer Banks landscape architect dug deep into his own pockets - and into three plots of land off North Carolina Route 12 to conduct research.
By planting wildflowers in the sandy grounds of the Osprey housing development in Duck, Conners hopes to gauge which species will grow well in the windy, sandy conditions that prevail along North Carolina's Outer Banks.
His desire to study the flowers stems from last spring when he, working for Quible and Associates engineers of Kitty Hawk, developed a project to stabilize 10 acres of sand dunes for a golf course in Currituck County.
``We used grasses like Bermuda grass and love grass, which is good for covering the ground. But it's just a bunch of grass,'' says Conners, 39. ``And I just thought, man, it would be really nice to have patches of pinks or yellow splashed through there. Unfortunately, I just didn't know enough about wildflowers and which ones can grow here.
``What a missed opportunity.''
He does not want to miss another.
So in March, Conners ordered pounds of seed mixtures from a company in Colorado and planted them on three semi-barren sand plots in the Osprey housing development. The 50 species of seeds cover about one acre.
Conners planted a blend of seeds that can germinate in a dry climate - such as African daisies, baby's breath and cornflower - amid bushes and patches of grass in the development's center.
He sprinkled a ``coastal'' mix including black-eyed Susans, spurred snapdragon and coreopsis along a slope near his driveway and a ``southeast'' mix of scarlet flax, corn poppy and lemon mint on a plot next to his home.
So far, Conners' labor has borne only small seedlings poking through the sand. But that's enough to excite him, he said.
``I've been watching them like a kid at Easter,'' Conners says, laughing.
Conners, who inputs daily observations about his flowers into a home computer, says he wants to satisfy his own curiosity as well as help other people make landscaping decisions. At the conclusion of his research, he will assemble a report that will be available to anyone who wants it.
``I hope this experiment will give people alternatives,'' Conners says.
The experiment devours a lot of Conners' time and money. He spends two hours each night watering the plots and and he estimates he has spent $500 sowing and caring for the seeds.
``When 500 bucks hits the newspaper, that doesn't sound like a lot of money,'' Conners says, adding with a laugh. ``For just for a homeowner who is just doing this for an experiment, I've had a difficult time justifying this to myself and to my wife.''
But Conners' wife, Leckie, says she doesn't mind the price tag on the research. In fact, she says she thinks the project is ``cool.''
``It's something different,'' Leckie Conners says. ``I think the research is something that people will want to know. I'm really interested to see how it turns out.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Jim Conners has planted wildflowers in sandy ground in Duck, hoping
to gauge which species will grow well in the windy, sandy conditions
on the Outer Banks.
by CNB