Last night Dave Anderson showed me all the trout lily he exposed under the vinca and winter creeper that he pulled off the slope in front of his house. His house faces High Street and the rain garden.

The Franklin Soil & Water annual native plant and tree sale is underway. Orders must be received by March 26, and your orders can be picked up April 16 & 17.  Get together with your neighbors to order different bundles of seedlings to spread native species around the area.  (Most orders are for 5-10 bare rooted seedlings of a single species, similar to the trees we plant in the ravine area each year.) 

It would be great to develop an area filled with Spicebush, Ninebarks, and Witchhazels to demonstrate native alternatives to the honeysuckles we work so hard to get rid of.  Go to their website for more information.

I take back what I said about buying wildflowers at Lowes. Thanks to Jeff Frontz, I got a good education about the difference of “nursery grown” and “nursery propagated”. It seems the nursery that supplies Lowes with their wildflowers has collected them from the wild and then resold them. This depleted or wipes out native populations of these plants. They have even been in trouble with the USFWS for collecting and selling venus flytraps from the wild.

So I guess the action we should take is to tell Lowes we want natives but only those that are “nursery propogated”.

Here are some websites and input from Jeff:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/natives/msg0617012515531.html
is where there is a discussion about wild-collected vs. nursery-propagated and (about half-way down, July 7 at 8:46).

http://southeast.fws.gov/news/1999/r99-087.html is the press release on the owner’s SECOND conviction on trafficking in endangered species.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/woodland/msg0209172431638.html

talks specifically about Lowe’s (it wanders on and off topic, so keep scanning until the end) and also mentions the provenance issues that the supplier has faced.

But, really, it’s the labeling that clinches it for me– nurseries that actually propagate their stock plaster their packaging/ads with this fact. They know that folks will pay for the assurance that they’re not contributing to the depredation of wild areas. Not trumpeting the fact that something is actually nursery propagated would be tantamount to an organic food producer leaving “USDA Organic” off of their packaging.

Jeff

Hi All,

I was at Lowes today and was excited to find many varieties of native bulbs/corms/tubers for sale.  It was a great variety:

Hepatica, Virginia Bluebell, Wild Geranium, Sessile Trillium, Trout
Lily, Large-flowered Trillium, Bloodroot, May Apple, Fire Pinks,
Maidenhair fern, Christmas Fern, Butterflyweed, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and more that I don’t remember right now.  AND they are only $1.98 each. The package also indicated they were nursery grown.

I am so pleased that they are carrying natives.  And they are at all the Lowes locations.  I encourage all of you to go out and get some to show through our buying power that we want natives available.  Also, please send this information along to others that you know support the use of natives in our landscaping.

It would also be great to comment to the managers how much you appreciate them stocking native plants/bulbs.

Elayna

The Winter Aconite are just foliage now, and the impressive though invasive carpets of blue/purple Squill (scilla) are fading, but popping up throughout the ravine area are Virginia Bluebells, Dutchman’s Breeches, Spring Beauties, and the beginning foliage of Trout Lilies and May Apples.

Unfortunately, also coming back to life are the honeysuckle, euonymus, and the garlic mustard.

Please join your friends and neighbors in the coming weeks as we remove and bag garlic mustard and other invasive plants from the ravine and our own yards to make it possible for the native plants to return and thrive.

The Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District (FSWCD) is again offering native plants, trees, and seeds for sale.  To see the variety of natives available go to their sale’s website: http://www.franklinswcd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=77

The deadline to order is Friday, March 13.  Order pickup from the FSWCD office is Friday April 17 and Saturday April 18.

One of my favorite Sunday rituals is to find Cindy Decker’s column in the Home and Garden section of The Columbus Dispatch. Today’s column is “Garden’s should be all shades of green.” She means “lush and green” as in “is your garden kind to the environment?” Many of the practices will also save money.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/home_garden/stories/2008/06/29/6a_W

ILD29_ART_06-29-08_H1_8GAIUTJ.html?sid=101

6/14/08

A HUGE THANK YOU TINA MOHN! (City of Columbus Recreation and Parks, Property Manager)

For the new native trees are planted at the completed culvert improvement project on Overbrook near Lenappe.

2 Red Bud

2- Red Maple

1 – Cottonwood

1- Sycamore

Additional trees planted in this area:

3-Box Elder

4- Sugar Maple

4- Ohio Buckeye

2- Ironwood

2- Bitternut Hickory

6-Hackberry

5-Black Walnut

4 – Hophornbeam

7-Black Cherry

6- American Elm

Inexpensive native plant and fish sale from Franklin Soil and Water Conservation:  http://franklinswcd.org/images/stories/fs%20winter%202008.pdf

Photos:  http://www.franklinswcd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=27&Itemid=78 <http://www.franklinswcd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=27&Itemid=78>

Last day to order is March 7, pick-up is Fri, 4/11 7am -6 pm and Sat, 4/12 8am-noon

Some neighbors asked about Phlox and Phlox-like plants.
Native Wild Blue Phlox blooms April-June. Garden Phlox blooms July – September.
The key identifier: NATIVE PHLOX HAS 5 PETALS, the invasive phlox has 4 petals. There is a phlox-like purple flower blooming in the ravine, which may be Dame’s Rocket. Here’s a link to tell them apart.