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Bright Fresh Colors Open 4th Season of Wildflowers on Metro Detroit Expressways

28 June 2000

Chrysler Jeep Superstores Sponsor Unique Highway Beautification With Monet-Inspired 'Wildflowers Paintings' on Expressway Medians

       
    DETROIT - More than a million metro Detroit commuters actually have 
something to look forward to on their daily drives again this summer with 
the fourth seasonal opening of Chrysler-Jeeps Superstores' living, growing 
"Wildflowers Paintings," now playing on an expressway near you.  The 
first-of-its-kind project transforms urban roadsides at three metro Detroit 
expressway gateways into striking, constantly changing landscapes of beautiful, 
bright and bold colors.

    "Girl Scout green" and "Brownie brown" are added featured colors this year
with a new service patch from the Michigan Metro Girl Scouts Council (MMGSC),
in partnership with the Chrysler-Jeep Superstores.

    The fourth season and the new Girl Scouts partnership were jointly
announced by Mark Snethkamp, Chrysler Jeep Superstores Association president,
and MMGSC executive director Penny Bailer.

    The seven living Wildflowers Paintings gardens collectively cover nearly
five acres and stretch nearly a mile of combined length.  They are located at
three interstate gateways to metropolitan Detroit -- Western (I-275, M-14 and
I-96); Central (I-96 and I-75), and Eastern (I-94 and I-696).

    A special Girl Scout service "patch" is being commissioned, in a MMGSC
partnership with Chrysler-Jeep Superstores, for a new Wildflowers Paintings
study project.  The new Wildflowers Paintings patch will be earned by MMGSC
Girl and Brownie Scouts for environmental awareness, community beautification,
and landscape design.

    The Monet-inspired wildflower beds have been designed to bloom throughout
the summer season, constantly changing in "waves" of colors and shapes.  More
than 20 different kinds of wildflowers are used in the three locations, with
hundreds of thousands of seeds planted.