Putting a Show on the Road

Beggar ticks, dame’s rockets, sulfur cosmos—just some of the fancy characters that peddle their spirited finery along North Carolina highways and byways. State agronomists know them as wildflowers to garden by. Travelers know them as welcome distractions dressing up those monotonous, gray strips of asphalt or concrete crisscrossing the state.

From spring until frost—from the Great Smoky Mountains east to the “shining sea”—oases of color spring up along North Carolina’s roadsides, spawning a statewide culture that brings joy to the eyes. Beggar ticks (marigolds) and black-eyed Susans sing out in tones of yellow, while variegated cosmos harmonize in shades from white to pink to reddish-burgundy. And dame’s rockets send a violet trill through stands of golden coreopsis. No matter their names or colors, they’re like ardent minstrels that play to the thousands of travelers who motor by them each year.

And they all owe their lives to an army of employees in the Department of Transportation and its Roadside Environmental Unit, which has 14 divisions and hundreds of employees across the state, plying their gardening expertise to keep their state coming up flowers. Master gardener Bill Johnson of Wilson (pop. 39,931) has been at the helm long enough to remember North Carolina’s first attempt at wildflower culture.

“Back in the ’70s we planted seed donated by some of the garden clubs, and they didn’t do too well. Then in 1985, the state’s first lady (Dorothy Martin) urged us to give it another try. We purchased a southeast wildflower mix and planted 12 acres with good results.”

The project was dubbed the North Carolina Roadside Wildflower Program, and in 15 years has grown from a dozen acres to a little over 3,000 across the state. According to Johnson, “It is the largest, most successful intended wildflower program in the country.”

Turning quarter acre and larger plots of dowdy vegetation into carpets of florescent color involves more than a tip of the shovel. Just talk to the men under the supervision of Randy Raynor in the Raleigh office about gardening his division’s 95 acres. You soon begin to realize that a phalanx of wildflowers doesn’t take to its digs naturally.

“To get a good stand of any wildflower, you have to #spray to get rid of the natural vegetation, till the soil, and then work it until it’s a fine consistency,” says Kyle Albright, one of the many dedicated state workers on the front line.

Albright, a recent horticulture graduate of North Carolina State University and a Raleigh resident, knows from experience how important it is to use the right equipment and techniques to achieve success, adding that “good results also come with taking a lot of pride in our work.”

That work often means strenuous, labor-intensive litter and rock removal. But the biggest roadblock to creating a “field of daisies” is the plain old weed. For Albright and his co-worker, Philip Tedder, the four-letter word calls up vision#s of backpacking hand sprayers and walking many miles to zap the weeds that defy fumigation.

“This spring we had to hand spray 80 acres, and it was a real challenge,” says Tedder of Kenly (pop. 1,580).

After soil preparation and weed eradication, it’s time to plan the growing schedule. Wildflowers come in many species, and not all of them are created equal. Some send out blooms only during springtime, while others flaunt their colors until frost. So the challenge comes in planting the right nuggets at the right time to create continuous color from one end of the growing season to the other.

#Raynor and his crew, who have received several awards from the North Carolina Garden Club, consider the mind and muscle exercises just all in a day’s work. They say the big payoff, a solid sea of colorful flowers, is worth the effort.

Apparently, North Carolinians feel it’s worth it, too. The public’s gratitude for each new round of blooms generally comes in two sizes—large and extra large. Bill Johnson has heard the “oohs” and “aahs” and says without a doubt, “This is the most appreciated of any program we could have undertaken. There’s something about flowers that’s therapeutic.”

Ann Goebel is a Knightdale, N.C.-based writer.

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