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Chestnut Hill Man Builds Prize Exhibit at Flower Show

Release Date: 3/10/2000
Contact Information: Bonnie J. Smith (215) 814-5543

Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

PHILADELPHIA - Dan Welker of Chestnut Hill, an environmental protection specialist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, played a major part in bringing together EPA’s award-winning exhibit at the 2000 Philadelphia Flower Show, "Native Groundcovers for Natural and Contemporary Landscapes."

For the third year in a row, the EPA has been recognized in the non-academic educational category -- this year with the garden of distinction award following best in show the previous two years. EPA’s woodland and wetland exhibit demonstrates how the same plants in a native setting can look in our own backyards.

"We are excited about the award," Welker said. "Winning three years in a row is quite an accomplishment."

Visitors to the exhibit will find two gardens. One is a restful, woodland landscape that creates a wildlife habitat for birds and butterflies by providing food and water, shelter, and reproduction sites needed for their survival. The second garden is contemporary, complete with a fabulous fountain filled with iris and pitcher plants and surrounded by color from cranberry, laurel, azalea, and redbud.

Welker and other EPA employees assembled the agency’s display of plants, which they started propagating last fall. The collection of native plants including tall pines, shrubs and perennials, visually demonstrates beneficial landscaping -- an earth-friendly way of gardening. Such plants will thrive with less water, less fertilizer and pesticides and a lot less work than exotic plants because they have are naturally adapted to local climate and soil conditions.

The EPA also recommends beneficial landscaping because imported plants like Norway maple, Japanese honeysuckle, kudzu, purple loosestrife and crown vetch grow at such a fast rate that they can crowd out native vegetation and even lead to extinction of local species.

For more information about environmentally beneficial landscaping, call the EPA at
215-814-5662/5663 and ask for a copy of "A Gardener’s Guide To a Healthy Environment."