Native Plants

John F. Collins, 75, a landscape architect, urban planner, nurseryman, and educator, died of complications of Parkinson's disease Friday, Aug. 5, at home. Among Mr. Collins' projects were Schuylkill River Park; the renovation of the Market East corridor with wider sidewalks, bus shelters, trees, and flower boxes; the greenways of Society Hill; and pocket parks throughout Center City. He first drew plans for Schuylkill River Park in 1965. Forty years later, the 1.2-mile riverfront path was finally opened to pedestrians and bicyclists.

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.

To preserve its rural appearance, Montgomery Township, N.J., is requiring developers to preserve or replace hedgerows that have grown up between roadways and farm fields. Hedgerow preservation programs have been worked into plans for several developments in the Somerset County township, and a new hedgerow is being installed at the Hoagland Farms development there. The program was developed by Lenaz, Mueller & Associates, a Princeton firm that serves as a consultant to the local planning board.

For gardeners and other plant-lovers, here's a sampling of regional events: 5K Run for Clean Air Cash prizes, contests, food. Martin Luther King Dr.; 5krunforcleanair.org. 4/21. 9 am-12 pm. Bird Walks Sat. Call 215-345-7860 for more information. Peace Valley Nature Center, 170 Chapman Rd., Doylestown. Donation suggested: $2. 4/21. Birding With Ruth Bird walk led by experienced area birdwatcher Ruth Pfeffer. Norristown Farm Park, 2500 Upper Farm Rd., Norristown; 610-270-0215.

Bobbi Cowley prepared a feast fit for a tiny visitor a few days ago at her garden in Wayne. She suspended a red feeder full of sugar-water solution at one side of her back door, and a hanging basket filled with red-flowering annuals at the other. If he arrives on schedule, her guest, a ruby-throated hummingbird that considers Cowley's backyard his turf, will be whirring around her door tomorrow. For the last two years, he has returned from his winter sojourn precisely on April 23. Of course, Cowley doesn't know if it's the same bird each year, since any hummingbird would make a beeline for the color red. But she likes to think it is. He's just one of many birds that flock to her garden during the year.

Scientists battling a host of foreign invaders are producing weapons of miniature destruction in a lab outside Trenton. Call it biological warfare on a bug-size scale. The invaders are plants and insects that are chewing up crops, deforesting forests, and squeezing out native species. The weapons are foreigners, too - parasitic bugs that are being bred by the millions at the New Jersey Department of Agriculture's Beneficial Insect Lab, only one of three such facilities run by a state in the nation.

Wildflowers were made for the lazy gardener. These hardy native plants are ideal for anyone who loves colorful flowers but can't - or won't - spare the time to tend to them. But wildflowers have more than low maintenance going for them. Many will bloom all summer long, and attract songbirds and butterflies to enhance the view. "They're a food source for these flying creatures, while cultivated flowers are not," said horticulturist Jim Wilson. Just what are wildflowers?

With temperatures due to plummet into the low 20s by late tomorrow, Rick Lewandowski of Morris Arboretum has this advice for nervous gardeners: "If you believe in God, I'd touch base. " Absent divine intervention, the region is about to get a two-day blast of frigid air - the coldest since the Mummers hit Broad Street on New Year's Day. You can unpack a sweater. But what to do about all of those pretty plants that are acting like it's mid-April? "In reality, nothing," says Lewandowski, director of horticulture at the Chestnut Hill arboretum.

A MICKEY MOUSE SITUATION Many of your children find career role models on television. But, alas, jobs as ghostbusters and vampire hunters are limited. A Florida State University study says most TV programs watched by children give a false impression of the working world. The study found that television portrays too few people working and even fewer being rewarded for work. HEALTHY DAD, HEALTHY BABY Take note, guys: You can help assure the health of your baby even before conception.