Poppies and Landscape Design

Author: Georgene A. Bramlage
Published: Jul 10, 2006

Government and private groups work to bring color to highway and commercial landscapes. Annual poppies add flair and dazzle to large wildflower plantings.

Large, flamboyant beds of annual poppies are breathtaking. I regularly drive through Pennsylvania (Penn) and Virginia (VA), two U.S. east coast states, and admire colorful wildflower patches planted along the sides and median strips of their limited access and interstate highways. Departments of Transportation (DOT) from both states see these benefits arising from highway wildflower programs:

• Attractive highways that are easier to maintain because mowing demands are less;
• Visible litter appears reduced. Do travelers throw a lesser amount of trash along a nice-looking road?
• A reduction in accidents because colorful plantings fight "highway hypnosis" and driver fatigue; and
• An increase in environmental awareness. Wildflowers provide cover and nourishment for songbirds and insects.

Each year, VDOT plants about 2,500 pounds of wildflower seed along Virginia's interstates and primary routes as part of its Wildflower Program. VDOT and the VA Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc. began in 1976 to develop this program with the assistance of Operation Wildflower, founded by Lady Bird Johnson during her husband's presidency. In the program's first year, there were 25 plots throughout the Commonwealth; today there are more than 500 acres of assorted wildflowers. My favorite patch is one of corn poppies in the median of I-81 near Dixie Caverns. Readers can request an informational brochure containing a small poster of 14 VA wildflowers from VDOT by e-mailing a request to: publications@VirginiaDOT.org

PennDOT started its first statewide wildflower-planting effort in 1990. Volunteers work with the State's Adopt And Beautify Program, in which groups or individuals pledge to plant and maintain wildflowers and other approved plantings along a section of highway for at least two years. PennDOT then places a sign at the location acknowledging the group for its beautification efforts.

Techniques involved in planting wildflower plots, patches, strips and meadows can be found in my earlier article Romantic or Realist – Establishing a Wildflower Lawn or Meadow.

For a small sampling of government and private groups using the wildflower beautification concept, please read my blog entry for July 10, 2006.

If you know of a successful large-scale government or commercial wildflower project, please send an e-mail to me at: landscaping@suite101.com. Please include pertinent facts about the project, contact information, and of course, your name.

© Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, July 2006. Reproduction without permission prohibited.