THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506300666
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
As Robert Johnson sees it, a wildflower is a weed that has found a useful role in the world.
For more than a dozen different kinds of wildflowers, that purpose is beautifying Virginia's highways with glorious flashes of color from the end of February into July.
There's also a practical side: Wildflower plantings contribute to road safety. They help slow traffic along road curves, exit ramps and approaches to cities. Scattered along long stretches of highway, the wildflowers reduce ``highway hypnosis'' and help keep drivers alert.
The flowers also cut down on mowing, which reduces manpower demands. That means that less air-polluting equipment is required to keep the areas tidy. And the flowers produce oxygen as well.
Robert Johnson is in charge of roadside beautification for the Suffolk District of Virginia Department of Transportation. Overseeing more than 70 acres of plantings - from the North Carolina border to the Maryland border, west to Brunswick County and north to the Prince George County line - is part of his job as transportation roadside development manager, but Johnson radiates enthusiasm as he talks about it.
Dressed in khacki trousers and a blue Oxford cloth shirt, he sports a deeper blue necktie patterned with - What else? - wildflowers. With the pride of a man showing home movies, Johnson flicks though a cartridge of slides. He knows each flower bed, what varieties are planted there, when it will be in full bloom and how well it is doing.
More than 200 acres of wildflowers have been planted statewide by VDOT over the last 20 years. The program's roots are in Operation Wildflower, a national program sponsored by former First Lady Ladybird Johnson.
In Virginia, Operation Wildflower was a cooperative effort of VDOT and the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs, beginning in 1976 with 25 flower beds. Garden clubs, civic clubs and private citizens continue to support the program.
The plantings often are along the sloping banks of a highway, such as the U.S. Route 58 Bypass. Motorists knew spring was on its way when thousands of yellow daffodils broke into bloom on both sides of the roadway.
Specifically, Johnson says, 20,000 daffodils were planted there, in one of the department's most successful plantings. Several varieties were included to extend the blooming season.
Wide medians also are prime areas for plantings, such as the white Ox-eye Daisies that brought May color to Virginia Route 10, between Chuckatuck in Suffolk and the Isle of Wight Cokunty line.
Exit ramps also are showy planting spots. In May, Plains Coreopsis brightened Route 164 in Portsmouth, near the Cedar Lane exit. Hundreds of day lillies now bloom at the Interstate 664 and 164 interchange in Suffolk, and elsewhere.
Not all flowers do well in highway plantings. In selecting seeds and bulbs, Johnson considers the flower's blooming season, its bloom color, quality, size and durability.
``Dark colors like red and purple and too-small blooms cannot be seen at 60 mph,'' Johnson said. The most visible colors are white, like the Ox-eye Daisy, and the varying yellows of daffodils and lillies. Occasionally, darker flowers like purple Dames Rocket are placed against a white-flowering background.
Durability is also important because traffic wind moving over the leaves can dry out some wildflowers.
Although annuals the most vibrant blooms, they can be wiped out by a late frost. ``We tend to use more perrenials that average three to six years of optimum bloom,'' Johnson said.
Johnson's staff evaluates each plot annually. ``We have had some failures, especially where the topsoil was not good,'' Johnson said. ``Then we abandon the plot and reseed with grass.''
He added, ``We are also constantly looking for new things.'' Test beds allow his staff to learn which wild flowers will be the most productive. ``Black-eyed Susans were a disappointment because they did not perennialize and did not do well after the second year,'' he said. ``We learned that Chickory does well north and west of here but not here.''
Each year Johnson develops a master plan of which beds to keep , which to revitalize and which to abandon. Work schedules are planned a year in advance.
Renegade wildflowers that spread into farmer's fields can be a problem in rural areas of the state, according to Al Bryan, environmental program planner with VDOT's central district. ``In that case, we go in and cut off the seed heads so that seeds will not be carried by the wind or by birds,'' he said.
Virginia's $1 million wildflower budget is part of the state's federally mandated transportation enhancement program. In that program, 10% of state highway improvement funds - in Virginia, about $7 million - must be earmarked for aesthetic enhancements, including landscaping.
In the last three years, VDOT has begun a meadow-transplant program in which small, greenhouse-started perrenials and annuals are transplanted and mulched in to create almost-instant widlflower meadows at highway rest stops and other areas of high visibility.
``Taxpayers seem to enjoy the wildflowers and accept the program an an acceptable way to spend some of their tax dollars,'' Bryan said. ``As long as the public supports it, we will have a wildflower program.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by John H. Sheally II.
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KEYWORDS: WILDFLOWERS by CNB