Native Plants

As the coordinator of horticulture at the Brandywine Conservancy and River Museum in Chadds Ford, F.M. Mooberry was responsible for the gardens and all programs related to them. When she retired a year ago, Mooberry finally had time to plan a conference she had been contemplating for several years. "Native Plants in the Landscape" will take place at Millersville University Aug. 15 to 17. For a registration brochure, contact Grace Evans, Continuing Education, 104 Dilworth Hall, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa. 17551, or call 717-872-3030.

Steve Saffier, who does backyard environmental audits, knows the advice he's about to give may sound un-American to some ears. But he says it anyway: "Be patient. " You don't have to turn your yard upside down all at once. Redo one section at a time, and "think of this as a long-term project," he says. Converting grass to native plants, or even ripping out and replacing aggressive plants bit by bit, also gives your neighbors time to adjust to your new look. David Soskis, who now has native plants in parts of his lawn, was advised to add some colorful annuals along the front walkway, too. "It's sort of a sensory psychological transition" from the conventional to the new, he says.

The Wiggles from PBS Kids Sprout network brings its Big Birthday Tour to the Tower Theatre on Saturday, celebrating its 20th anniversary as a musical group, with proceeds benefiting a charity to help young children succeed in school through reading. Kids can party with the Wiggles during the 11:30 a.m. or 3 p.m. show. Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Capt. Feathersword, Wags the Dog, Dorothy the Dinosaur, and Henry the Octopus will sing some of their popular songs, including "Fruit Salad" and "Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car. " The Wiggly Dancers will party in the aisles with the audience.

A student would find it hard to choose a more attractive campus than Longwood Gardens, one of the nation's leading display gardens. Longwood sponsors a wide range of short courses and also offers a two-year intensive program for professional gardeners. Since the two-program began in 1970, 114 students have graduated. About 90 percent have gone on to careers in horticulture, and of these, half are in commercial businesses, and the rest work in public gardens and arboretums. Among the graduates are directors of horticulture for university campuses, general managers of nurseries and curators of plant collections in arboretums throughout the country.

When the Smithsonian Institution and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation went looking for trees and shrubs, they could have gone anywhere. They went to the native-plant nursery at Temple University's Ambler Campus, which is gaining national recognition for growing hardy breeds indigenous to the mid-Atlantic region. In mid-October, the Smithsonian purchased 25 native American elms, resistant to Dutch elm disease, for planting on Madison Drive in front of the Museums of American History and Natural History in Washington.

Dana Ely went plant shopping on Saturday. She was on the lookout for flora that was attractive, low-maintenance and easy to grow. At a tiny sale near here, she hit pay dirt. The Brandywine and Red Clay Valley Associations were holding their third annual gardeners' plant exchange with an emphasis on the native over the trendy. If the two should meet, so much the better. Amid the holly, the ironweed and the helianthus, Ely snagged a treasure - the only clethra "hummingbird" cultivar, "an absolutely lovely plant," said sale organizer Harriet Wentz.

Everywhere you look in Zeta Cross' yard, it's green, green, green, which is good. But let's get a closer view. Multiflora rose over there. English ivy down below. Isn't that tree of heaven . . . and Japanese honeysuckle? She's even got garlic mustard and purple nightshade, porcelain berry and vinca. Oh, no! Cross has enough runaway stuff in her yard to give an environmental purist like Steve Saffier cardiac arrest. But he's looking healthy, keeping cool, doing his diplomatic best not to embarrass her or make her feel bad. "These are invasives," he says, describing aggressive plants that are not recommended for home gardens, "but you're not alone.

Breathe in the heavy fragrance. Listen to the crash of the Pacific surf. Close your eyes and imagine you're in Hawaii. But the extravaganza of orchids and heliconia that will dazzle you at the Philadelphia International Flower Show beginning Sunday has little to do with the native Hawaiian landscape. "It's not really Hawaii plants," says Warren Wagner, the Smithsonian Institution's chair of Pacific botany. "What you'll see at the Flower Show is what the typical tourist to Hawaii sees - nearly 100 percent nonnative species.

Everywhere you look in Zeta Cross' yard, it's green, green, green, which is good. But let's get a closer view. Multiflora rose over there. English ivy down below. Isn't that tree of heaven . . . and Japanese honeysuckle? She's even got garlic mustard and purple nightshade, porcelain berry and vinca. Oh, no! Cross has enough runaway stuff in her yard to give an environmental purist like Steve Saffier cardiac arrest. But he's looking healthy, keeping cool, doing his diplomatic best not to embarrass her or make her feel bad. "These are invasives," he says, describing aggressive plants that are not recommended for home gardens, "but you're not alone.

You have to wonder what the folks protesting the "culling" of deer in Fairmount Park think about wildcats. When predatory animals roamed the park decades ago, they ate the deer for breakfast. How do the demonstrators think the natural world operates? This just in: Animals kill each other, and then they eat each other. When it doesn't happen that way, the environment goes out of whack. This is what has happened in Fairmount Park, where the deer not only are eating themselves out of house and home, they're eating their neighbors' habitats.