A group of seven Master Gardeners and two guests traveled to the nursery located East of Fayetteville. Those attending the program on Native Plants were Mariellen Griffith, Jerry Hembd, Mary Knight and guest Ann Richardson, Neta Stamps, Jennifer Boardman, Anita Engert, and Mary Burks and guess Mary Phillips.
Charity Cox presented a program on native plants. We were informed that some natives are good for wooded areas and prairies, however, they do not always play well in our gardens. They tend to be “floppy” and sprawling. Native plants from other areas, such as California, will not always do well in our area.
“Nativars” are “manmade” cultivars of native plants, bred by horticulturists through cloning or hybridization to enhance desirable qualities, such as disease resistance or longer bloom time. A nativar can be a hybrid of two or more plants selected to breed or a clone of one particularly desirable wild plant. Nativars may or may not be beneficial to pollinators.
For those of us who prefer to raise plants in pots rather than the rocky or clay soils, Charity Cox informed us that because of the “occasional” severe winters, we need to look for plants two zones lower than where we live! That means, if you want to grow hydrangeas in pots, (for our questionable zone) we need to look for plants which survive in zone 4!
After the interesting program, much shopping was done. ~Neta Stamps, Secretary pro-tem