NATIVE PLANT CENTER
INVITES PLANT PRE-SALE ORDERS FOR
RARE AND UNUSUAL PLANTS
The Native Plant Center (NPC), which is celebrating its
10th anniversary with a number of special events and programs,
has just released a Pre-Sale plant order list for its annual Native Plant
Sale. Join the celebration now by ordering your wildflowers and native
plants in advance as you plan ahead to make this year’s garden your greenest
ever!
The Native Plant Center Pre-Sale plant order list is
packed with new and unusual plants available in this area
only from the NPC. Orders must be
in by February 22, 2008. Order and reserve your plants now before they are
sold out and pick them up at the 8th Annual Wildflower and Native
Plant Sale at Westchester
Community College on May
3, 2008. To see and print a copy of the Pre-Sale List, go to the web site at
www.nativeplantcenter.org ,
email The Native Plant Center at
wcc.nativeplant@sunywcc.edu,
or call 914-606-7870. There are discounts for members of the NPC.
A new feature this year on the NPC web site is a Plant
Photo Gallery with pictures of all the plants in the sale. There is also an
electronic order form that will calculate your order for you. Ordering
couldn't be easier!
The
Native Plant
Center has teamed up again with the
New England Wild Flower Society
(NEWFS), the venerable
Massachusetts
institution that runs Garden in the Woods, to offer plants from their
expanded nursery operation at Nasami Farms. This partnership will allow them
to offer plants rarely available
in the commercial nursery trade, but be aware that quantities may be
limited, so order early! These rare plants are ethically propagated
and true to name.
Anyone familiar with the delicate, white blossoms of
shadbush (Amelanchier) will be dying to try the rare, pale pink form, Rosea.
Many other rarities abound on this year’s list, including two endangered
plants, one the showy, fragrant swamp pink (Helonias
bullata) and the other, Betula
uber, a naturally dwarf birch recently rediscovered in the mountains of
Virginia. This tree and another natural dwarf, chinkapin oak, are perfect
for the smaller garden. For people passionate about purple, there is the
stunning Baptisia ‘Twilite Prairieblues’, purple milkweed, and a
purple-leafed cultivar of the common ninebark shrub called “Diablo.”
The Native Plant Center is once again offering
groundcovers and grasses sold in quantities of five “plugs” for economic,
low-maintenance alternatives to lawn areas (easier to plant, too). Some of
the most popular from past years are offered again this year, including
meadow anemone, white woodland aster ‘Eastern Star’ and crested iris. New
picks include green-and-gold, a showy groundcover with yellow flowers and
wavy hairgrass, a delicate, drought-resistant native grass.
Any and all of these can be used to create a care-free tapestry that
changes and adds variety through the seasons, far more interesting than your
average patch of lawn. Shade gardeners will want to check out the fern
selection; four different species are offered, as well as the rarely offered
dewdrop and speckled wood lily. From rain gardens to rock gardens, there are
adaptable, easy-care natives to fill every need.
The non-profit Native Plant
Center, a project of the Westchester
Community College Foundation, was established in 1998 as the first national
affiliate of the Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower
Center
in Austin, Texas,
a national organization devoted to America’s native plants. The local
Center has grown to a 400-member organization that educates the public with
conferences, lectures and demonstration gardens. It also works with the New York Botanical Garden and a growing number of
state and county departments. Its efforts have led to significant changes in Westchester’s public landscaping. The NPC works with Westchester County on plant lists and consults on
native plantings on golf courses. It has also worked with the New York State
Department of Transportation to create wildflower meadows along the
roadsides.
For more information on
Native
Plant Center
events, visit the web site at
www.nativeplantcenter.org or phone 914-606-7870.
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