Saving pollinators, one household at a time
What a long, strange, cold-weather season it’s been! Even now, Old Man Winter seems reluctant to actually pass the ball to spring. I think that many of us right now feel like children who’ve been cooped up in the house too long by too many rainy days. We want to get our hands in the dirt and get planting!
Of course it’s perfect that local garden clubs and arboretums will soon be holding their annual spring plant sales, supplying our thirst for beautiful flowers, shrubs, vines, and trees. But before you head out, I want to share some thoughts from my friend, Sharon Richardson.
Richardson, who lives in Chester Springs, has long explored growing all kinds of plants. Recently, though, as she’s learned more about how our plant choices affect wildlife, she has started growing differently, adding more native plants that support local wildlife species. As we begin the plant-sale season, she shared some thoughts with me.
“At a planning meeting for our garden club’s plant sale in May,” she wrote, “someone made the point that plant sale shoppers are looking for instant gratification, instant pretty, and that the ‘little plain green plants’ aren’t popular and are hard to sell.”
In that moment, Richardson realized that there’s a need to help gardeners make informed decisions about what they buy and plant. To that end, she and the other members of the Garden Class of the Women’s Community Club of Uwchlan (WCUU) have planned a program to encourage gardeners to choose plants that will benefit the environment and be havens for pollinators throughout the year.
The message centers on our own residential properties. Unlike some of the other big environmental challenges that face the planet, here is a place where we, as individuals, can make a noticeable difference by exercising the power of choice. Do we choose plants because they’re showy and “eye-popping,” as the plant marketing folks like to say? Or do we choose plants because they will attract, feed, and support pollinators and other wildlife? It’s not even always a choice between showy and drab. Most times it’s about knowing that there are lovely alternatives to the often sterile “standards.”
Richardson’s garden club, in conjunction with the Chester County Master Gardeners, will present their informative program on Monday, April 30, 7 - 8:30 p.m., in the Struble Room of the Chester County Library in Exton, PA. Their goal is to prepare gardeners with the latest information available and make them knowledgeable about the benefits of succession planting to benefit our environment and pollinators during all four seasons.
The program will start with a short introductory video clip from the DVD “Backyard Habitat” (featuring author and University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy) and be followed by the main presentation. Master gardeners will have tables set up with hand-outs on a variety of topics and will also answer questions. Members of the WCCU Garden Club will also hand out packets of milkweed seeds (milkweed is the host plant for monarch butterflies) as they talk to people about the plants they will find at the club’s plant sale that will support pollinators.
Some of the exhibit tables will also include information about other important gardening issues such as how to identify and treat the destructive spotted lantern fly. The program supports the PA Forward Civic and Social Literacy Initiative.
The WCCU invites the community to join them on April 30 and learn more about what the birds, bees, and butterflies need for habitat, food, and procreation. They want people to “know before your go,” so that you can make the best decisions on plant material, to please both your sense of beauty while helping support pollinators, one household at a time.
Note: Richardson forwarded me a list she compiled of some of the upcoming plant sales that feature native species. If you’d like the list, please email me at pamelacbaxter@gmail.com.