During his daily commute to Lexington, High Point resident Scott Kaminski passes by fields of flowers along the highway, and he has a question for Carolina Curious:
"How long have these flower beds been there? Who actually maintains them, and who came up with the idea for these to exist?"
You’ll find them near highway overpasses, on and off ramps, all across North Carolina: huge flower beds filled with — depending on the time of year — day lilies, zinnias, poppies, sunflowers, and more, all of them just bursting with color.
Kaminski says he’s been lucky enough to drive through many different parts of the country, and he thinks the Tar Heel state takes the cake.
"This is one of the few places where I've seen something like this," says Kaminski. "It's just not something that most highway divisions pay a ton of attention to. And it's kind of nice that North Carolina does."
That’s music to the ears of Department of Transportation Communications Specialist Bridgette Barthe. She says the idea for DOT road crews to plant wildflowers along North Carolina’s highways came about in 1985. Then First Lady of North Carolina Dottie Martin read an article about the Texas Department of Transportation’s wildflower program that began back in the mid-1930s, and sent a note asking if North Carolina's DOT could do the same here.
Since then, the program has blossomed. It’s now in each of the state’s 14 highway divisions. Barthe says it’s a lot of work, and a labor of love.
"The wildflower beds are maintained by our roadside environmental personnel in each division," she says. "They go out, they prep the areas, they seed the areas. They go in sometimes and they weed to keep them looking good. We have some partners with NC State University and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services that I believe help determine what to plant and how best to plant it. But for the most part, they're all maintained by our staff."
Barthe says each year, teams that install and maintain the beds submit photos of the wildflowers in regional and statewide competitions. Garden Club of North Carolina judges select the annual award-winning divisions.
And when it comes to the flowers themselves, Barthe says, look but don’t touch, and only pull over in case of an emergency.
*Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Bridgette Barthe is NCDOT communications specialist, not director.