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Everything's coming up roses again for DOT's Division 14
By Carey King
For the second year in a row, the beds of wildflowers that brighten Western North Carolina's roadsides each spring, summer and fall have been declared best in the state by the N.C. Department of Transportation.
"It kind of caught us by surprise," said Rick Queen, the environmental engineer who directs DOT's Division 14 program. "Back in the early '90s we had a (winning) run of about three or four years, but there's just a lot of good programs out there."
Purple coneflowers poke their perky heads skyward in this photo taken by N.C. Department of Transportation Division 14 supervisor Tim Pannell. The division once again has been named Best Overall in the state for the flower beds it plants along roadsides in its 10-county region. This Wildflower Program bed is located on N.C. 107 just south of the highway's intersection with Cullowhee Mountain Road.
Repeating last year's success, Division 14's Roadside Environmental Department won Best Overall Division. They also won a second-year second in the daylily category, for a bed located at Exit 27 off Interstate 40 in Haywood County.
North Carolina's Wildflower Program was started in 1985 as part of an effort to beautify the state's highways. Each year since, Queen has snapped representative photographs of DOT flower beds throughout Division 14's 10 counties, then picked 25 slides to send to Raleigh for judging by a panel from the N.C. Garden Club.
The Best Overall distinction means that the 30 or so acres Division 14 seeds in wildflowers met club members' standards for neatness, flower variety and rotation of varieties throughout the season.
"It covers the gamut of all the flowers planted in all the beds," Queen said.
Division 14 workers seed the beds so that passers-by witness a rainbow of colors throughout the growing season. Red corn poppies, white shasta daisies and purple dame's rocket begin coming up in May, followed by yellow lanceleaf coreopsis, pink catchfly and orange California poppies in June. Purple coneflowers, yellow and red Plains coreopsis and yellow and black gloriosa daisies can be seen in July, with blue New England asters, yellow narrowleaf sunflowers, and orange sulphur and red, purple and white mixed cosmos carrying out the season until the end of October.
Workers hydroseed most of the beds, spraying seeds for seven or eight flower species from the back of a big truck with a 1,000-gallon tank. This year, for the first time, they also incorporated a "no-till" planting method by using a tractor and machine that cuts slits in the soil, then slides in small tubes of seeds.
"You don't have the potential soil erosion that way. Preventing soil erosion is a big thing with DOT," Queen said.
Seeds for this year's color display are already in the ground, as workers complete planting for the next year's flowers by mid-October, Queen said.
"It's the guys out there doing the work (that won this)," Queen said, noting the "dedication, pride and hard work" of his three road crews.
Division 14 supervisor Tim Pannell coordinates the wildflower work, Queen said. Others involved with the program at the Division's Webster Road office include: Doug Johnson, Ronnie Warren, Dennis Price, Delbert Queen, Scottie Coggins, Nathan Franklin, Craig Tucker, Mark Roberson, Andy Shuler, Glen Deitz, Ray Messer, Carroll Cagle, Kenny Turpin, Ed Smith, Brad Burns, Kristin McCoy, Cathy Foxx and Tracy Allison.
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