Horticultural Society, Volunteers Planting Thousands of New Plants Along Parkway
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Dozens of volunteers were getting their hands dirty in Logan Circle and Love Park today, part of an effort by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) to beautify the city.
With the museums on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the new Barnes Foundation a much-anticipated tourist attraction, it's important to make a good first impression, says PHS president Drew Becher.
"In the next month, the whole city will be blooming, basically from City Hall all the way to the art museum," he said today.
Becher is leading the "City in Bloom" project, which brings 4,000 new plants to the local landscape -- many with a tangerine tint.
"That's the new hot color in the world of horticulture and fashion," he notes.
Wearing fashionable paisley gardening boots, Laura Iacona (back to camera) was digging in with 40 of her co-workers from the local office of the accounting firm Grant Thornton.
"A lot of our people live here in the city, and it's so important to give back to the community that gives so much to us from a business and a living perspective," she said.
Brendan Neal, a seventh-grader at St. Francis Xavier School in Fairmount, says it's no accident that the city's so green, and he's doing his part -- along with a dozen of his fellow students.
"It makes a healthier, beautiful, and more welcoming place," he notes.
