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EPA’s Philly Flower Show Exhibit Wins Three Awards

Release Date: 3/10/2004
Contact Information: Nancy Grundahl, 215-814-2729

Nancy Grundahl, 215-814-2729

PHILADELPHIA – The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show has won three awards:

• Best in show, nonacademic educational
• Bulkley Medal of the Garden Club of America
• Special achievement award for education from the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania

EPA's exhibit, “ Sensible Small Space,” features live beneficial insects as an integral part of an environmentally friendly garden.

“I am proud of the EPA team which designed a garden using native plants and integrated pest management techniques. This is the natural way to fight pests,” said Donald S. Welsh, mid-Atlantic regional administrator.

The exhibit=s small greenhouse and quaint backyard garden with a rain barrel demonstrates the benefits of environmentally friendly gardening – reducing and reusing storm water runoff, minimizing the use of pesticides, and conserving and protecting native plants.

Anyone can transform their backyard garden into a beautiful setting that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also beneficial to the environment. Plants featured by EPA are:

• Ferns: maidenhair, lady fern, & log fern
• Azaleas: coast azalea, flame azalea, & Florida flame azalea
• Carolina rhododendrons
• Pitcher plants
• Ground covers: box honeysuckle & winterberry
• Shrubs: inkberry, itea, & leucothoe

And, the EPA team recommends having these beneficial insects in your garden: lady beetles, lacewings, praying mantis, nematodes, and cryptolaemus to help minimize the use of pesticides.

Additional information on environmentally friendly gardening can be found on a website developed by EPA at https://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/garden .

The Philadelphia Flower Show will run through March 14 at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

In addition, the exhibit in EPA’s Public Information Center, located at 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, will have a flower show theme for the months of March and April. Stop by from 8:30 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday to see the display and to pick up informational materials.

List of flower show team members
Ken Andersen, Medford, Burlington County, New Jersey
Ed Cobbs, Cherry Hill, Camden County, New Jersey
Andrew Dinsmore, Hilltown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Annie Donnelly, Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland
Steven Donohue, Langhorne, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Jeff Lapp, Hilltown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Todd Lutte, Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, Pennsylvania
Carol Petrow, East Nantmeal, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Jeff Pike, Voorhees, Camden County, New Jersey

Editor’s Note: A 37 second sound bite is available at: https://www.epa.gov/region3/radionews.htm.

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