Calvin Hosts Native Plant Sale

The fourth annual Calvin College Ecosystem Preserve native plant sale will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 2 at the Bunker Interpretive Center on Calvin's campus. All of the profits from the sale will benefit the summer camps through which area children explore the college's 90-acre Ecosystem Preserve.

Calvin biology professor, Dave Warners, coordinates the sale each year. He says that this sale is an opportunity for people to get familiar with native genotypes.

"The good news about native genotypes is they are well adapted to conditions in Grand Rapids," said Warners, the 2009 winner of the Presidential Award for Teaching. "These are plants that have been here long before you and I or anybody were here. So, once they're planted, they need very little care, including chemicals."

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.

For a complete list of plants for sale visit: www.calvin.edu/academic/eco-preserve/newsandevents.

Warners said that the prices of the native plants will be significantly lower than ones you would buy at a native plant grower. He says he is keeping the costs low to encourage people to plant these native genotypes in their yards.

"Not only do they need less care (than non-native plants), but they're better providers for birds and butterflies," said Warners.

For more information contact Jeanette Henderson, Ecosystem Preserve program manager, at preserve@calvin.edu or 616-526-7601.

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Received on Wed Apr 29 09:47:31 2009