Native Plants

Butterflies will find it hard to resist the colorful river of flowers that flows into the newly created meadow maze at Tyler Arboretum. And visitors to Tyler's newest offering will find it difficult to complete the tour without gleaning some insight into native plants and wildlife. The Stopford Family Meadow Maze, which opens tomorrow, features a four-ring labyrinth, the butterfly river, and a series of discovery stations along the maze's perimeter that are designed to educate and entertain visitors.

Sinclair Adam used to cringe when his pals called him "the pharaoh of foamflower. " Now, he embraces his inner sovereign with only a slight grimace, hoping it helps get the word out about tiarella, the starry little wildflower he adores. "Tiarellas rock," says Adam, a pipe-smoking plant breeder and horticulturist who runs Dunvegan Nursery with his wife, Kirsten, from an 18th-century farmhouse in Coatesville. More properly known as Tiarella cordifolia, which refers to their heart-shaped leaves and small tiaralike flower sprays, shade-loving "foamies" have been an Adam preoccupation for two decades.

When Toby Rabold suffered incapacitating repetitive-strain problems affecting her hands and arms, not only was her career in jeopardy, but so was her love affair with gardening. Rabold has been crazy about gardening most of her life, and an active gardener for a quarter-century. Back in 1980, she and her husband, David, bought an old barn on a swath of land in Coopersburg, Lehigh County, with the idea of turning it into their dream home. "I had two acres and a creek to play with," says Rabold, who gradually established sun and shade gardens, a garden filled with hostas, another of roses, and a water garden.

Kelsey Kirkwood, 10, tried to wiggle her way out of a pair of 17th-century steel handcuffs. Eric Truitte, 12, spent much of his day Saturday making 18th-century-style lead pencils. Anne Vince, flour splattered on her Revolutionary-style apron, handed out fire-baked scones with rich herb butter. It was the first day of Chadds Ford Days, a weekend historical extravaganza organized to celebrate the area's revolutionary past. The event was sponsored by the Chadds Ford Historical Society.

The controversial swamp swap is under way at the Tinicum National Environmental Center. Workers equipped with bright orange silt fences, dredges and tree-munching machines have begun a $1.6 million, 14-month restoration of 18 acres of ruined wetlands at the Tinicum National Environmental Center. "It's a great project," said center manager Dick Nugent. "Before long, we hope to have a big sign" to let passing motorists know what's going on. The restoration site, along southbound Interstate 95 across from the Henderson Airport Business Center in Tinicum, will make up for 19 acres of precious wetlands lost to construction of Interstate 476, better known as the Blue Route.

Even the most environmentally conscious folks often take a chance on burning too much fossil fuel, spiriting themselves along rural byways in the fall to gaze lovingly at the palette of leaf-changing colors. What about a spring equivalent, though? A ramble through the colors of flora should not be second-rate. The irony, to be sure, according to Tomasz Anisko, curator of plants at Longwood Gardens, the Kennett Square horticultural complex, is that suburban sprawl, that nemesis of ecological soundness, provides the best opportunity for a spring fling in bud-watching.

The cities, Temple University officials say, are reversing development trends and are tearing up concrete to put in trees and flowers at an increasing rate. And, as they see it, the back-to-nature trend has created a big demand for professionals trained in urban landscape planning and management. In an attempt to capitalize on this demand, the university's trustees have approved two new bachelor of science programs in horticulture and landscape architecture and plan to graduate the first four-year students by May 1990.

Eileen Boyle takes a bird's-eye view of the fall garden. She sees it as a bountiful buffet of fruits, nuts and seeds. She won't eat them herself. She'll use them, along with dried apricots and apples, popcorn and Cheerios, to make a holiday wreath that's a treat for birds and a delight for people who like to watch them. "You'll have birds till February. It's so cool," says Boyle, education coordinator at the nonprofit Mount Cuba Center near Wilmington, which studies and celebrates regional native plants and wildflowers.

Mom & Pop's Coffeehouse in Levittown will present singers Kim and Reggie Harris this evening. The husband-and-wife duo, who have been singing together for almost 20 years, will perform at 8 p.m. at United Christian Church. "Their singing can move an audience. The topics of their songs are very carefully selected, very meaningful," said Sue Deckhart, program director for Mom & Pop's. "They address freedom, social justice, environmental issues, romance, humor. " Their first album, Music and the Underground Railroad, was recorded in 1981.

Mount Cuba Center in Greenville, Del., the horticultural nonprofit dedicated to native plants in the Appalachian Piedmont, is the first among the public gardens in the Philadelphia region, and possibly beyond, to start a distance-learning program. Two wholly online, on-demand classes - six hours on native ferns for $40 and three hours on creating a hummingbird garden for $25 - debuted in November. In January and February, two more classes - moss gardening and meadow plants - will be available via computer or mobile device at www.mtcubacenter.org . This may not sound earthshaking, given that millions of college students and others have been learning online for years.