A wildflower-filled lot beckons visitors at this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show. The unconventional garden, filled with native plants and long-time residents like Queen Ann’s lace, reflects the design concepts of Kelly D. Norris of Des Moines, IA. He follows an ecological planting approach to design for his residential clients in Des Moines and the upper mid-West. This was the firm’s first display at the Flower Show. I spoke with Kelly Norris at the show.

Laura O’Callaghan: Is your garden all natives?

Kelly Norris: It is not, the concept about the exhibit is to create the artifice of urban and abandoned spaces. And, in some ways, to explore and celebrate the conflict of plant origins that occur in a place where disturbance is the principal…

There are species of plants that would be native here in Philadelphia and the Eastern seaboard but also examples of plants that aren’t.

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