Gardening with Native Plants -- Sale at Calvin on May 5

From: Phil de Haan <dehp@calvin.edu>
Date: Tue May 01 2007 - 09:12:49 EDT

May 1, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin College will sell thousands of native plants on Saturday, May
5 from 10 am to noon and, prior to the sale, teach people how to garden with
native plants.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/native-plants.htm

The second annual Calvin College native plant sale will be held from 10 a.m.
through noon on Saturday, May 5 at the Vincent and Helen Bunker Interpretive
Center on Calvin’s campus.

Calvin biology professor Dave Warners, the sale coordinator, says the annual
event is good for local plant lovers and good for West Michigan.

Almost all of the plants at the sale are native genotypes -- collected locally
-- which are grown in greenhouses at Calvin. Native genotypes are promoted by
native plant gardeners for a number of reasons Warners says.

“Non-native genotypes have a tendency to become weedy. If you get a
Black-Eyed Susan that was grown in New York State and replant it here, it could
be really aggressive,” he notes. “We collected Black-Eyed Susan seeds from
Ada. Those Black-Eyed Susan plants have probably been growing in the Ada region
for thousands of years, so they’re very used to the climate and the
conditions here in West Michigan.”

Native plants also support the larger native habitat, Warners emphasizes,
sustaining the butterflies and birds that are native, and therefore natural,
pollinators.

“For instance, the Columbine flowers open at the same time Ruby-throated
Hummingbirds return from migration," he says. "They’re out of energy, and
they need nectar.”

Among the plants on sale at the Bunker Center will be Swamp milkweed, wild
bergamot, Golden Alexanders, Wild columbine, Cow bane, Joe Pye weed, Wild
strawberry, Black-Eyed Susan, Purple coneflowers, Rattlesnake master, Yellow
coneflower, Boneset and a whole range of grasses: bottlebrush grass, fringed
brome grass, big and little blue stem, switchgrass and Canada wild rye, among
others.

Organizers of this year’s sale are planning to have double the number of
plants on hand Saturday than they did last year, hoping to build on the success
of the debut effort, while still giving plant lovers value for their money.

All profits from the sale will benefit Calvin’s Wetland and Woodland Camps,
summer classes through which area children explore the college’s 90-acre
Ecosystem Preserve.

Prior to the sale, at 8:30 a.m., Warners will speak at the Bunker’s “First
Saturday at the Ecosystem Preserve” series on the subject of urban
landscaping with native species.

Contact Warners at 616-526-6820

-end-
Received on Tue May 1 09:13:37 2007

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