Native Plant Sale at Reflection Riding

The 30th Native Plant Sale opens to the public this weekend for a sale of sustainably grown starts, butterfly garden talks and tree identification walks around the grounds of Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center in Lookout Valley.

The annual plant sale will be held from 9 a. m. to 4 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 21-22. A sale open only to Reflection Riding members will be held today from 2 to 7 p.m.

In conjunction with that sale, the Tennessee Valley Rhododendron Society is moving its annual plant sale to Reflection Riding on Friday and Saturday during the same hours. A preview day for its members will also be from 2 to 7 p.m. today.

The TVRS will offer rhododendrons, evergreen azaleas, native deciduous azaleas and mountain laurel for sale.

Members of the American Rhododendron Society, including those who join at the sale, will receive a 25 percent discount on plants they buy at the sale. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Reflection Riding.

The Native Plant Sale specializes in nursery-propagated plants grown especially for this area. An important aspect of the sale is to educate the public in the use of native flora in garden settings, says Susan Phillips, Reflection Riding director of marketing and development.

“Many (of the plants) are propagated from seeds gathered from native populations of wildflowers, woody shrubs and trees growing on the slopes of Lookout Mountain and the surrounding parts of the Cumberland Plateau,” she says.

“Gathering seeds from local populations allows us to enjoy the advantage of the adaptive variation found in local gene pools. Species evolve in relationship to the other organisms in their area, and these symbioses form an interconnected web of dependency.”

Phillips explains that native trees provide the major structural component of mature Appalachian forests, as well as food in the form of nuts, fruits, leaves and wood for a variety of animals, plants and fungi, forming the basis of the food chain. This balanced ecosystem of native plants can be upset by the introduction of non-natives, especially when exotic domesticated plants escape into the wild and become invasive, displacing the native plants and the organisms that depend on them.

Admission is free into the sale; plants are priced from $4 to $ 20. Phillips says that anyone purchasing a plant from the Native Plant Sale on Friday or Saturday will receive free admission to the 317 acres of Reflection Riding Arbo- retum & Nature Center.

For more information about the Native Plant Sale: 423-821-1160. For more information on the Tennessee Valley Rhododendron Society: 423-886-6256.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO A bee stops on a pink echinacea (cone flower). A tour of Reflection Riding’s butterfly garden and talk on how to draw pollinators to your yard is part of Friday’s schedule at the Native Plant Sale.