Native Plant Fest & Sale 2023

By Stacey Wildberger

The sale you have waited for all year is back. Bigger and Better with the same LOW, LOW prices and experts on hand to help select the right plant for the right place.    It is a good idea to come prepared, so you know what you are looking to add or get started with, so we have the list available online on our website (no pre-orders or early birds though).  We will also have Master Gardener and Watershed Steward Alison Milligan not only on hand the day of the sale, but she will give a presentation on native’s plants that work well together in different conditions.  Her focus will be on the plants we will be selling at the sale.  Join us September 7^th 7-8 pm (doors open 6:30pm) at the Clubhouse 1223 River Bay Road Annapolis

We are offering 5 ferns that will work in many Cape yards.  Shady, dry? We have the ferns for you. We will have at least four Carex species including the most popular species, again the dry, shade standout Carex pensylvanica.  Shadier spot that you’d like to add some grasses to?  How about Panicum virgatum “Shenandoah” for its amazing fall red color?  Or Muhlenbergia capillaris with its feathery clods of pink?

One of the most overlooked areas of the garden is the groundcover layer.  “Green mulch”, technique of using plants as mulch.  Cover the ground with plants and reduce your weeding and mulching chores to near zero.  My favorite for the front sunny area I have is Antennaria plantaginifolia plantain pussytoes.  The semi evergreen leaves hold and cover the ground year-round and then produces a 5” stalk with the sweetest little bloom on early spring and it hosts the butterfly larvae of the American Painted Lady butterfly.  Or use Chrysogonum virginianum green and gold for a shadier area with his golden bloom.  No sale would be complete without Packera aurea golden ragwort (Photo at top: Packera as groundcover.) 

Pussytoes as groundcover

In the perennial herbaceous group, we will have selections of the much sought after asters, milkweed, Joe-Pye weed, coneflowers, coreopsis, cardinal flower, goldenrod, phlox (creeping, moss and garden) as well as some under used selections you may want to try, culver’s root, rattlesnake master, Monarda puncata, golden alexander, NY Ironweed, turtle head and the small headed blazing star.

I highly encourage you to visit our website and click on the plant sale list and start your planning! Mark your calendar for Alison Milligan’s talk on plant combinations. September 7^th 7pm

Did you know we offer a 1-hour garden consultation for a suggested donation? Contact us at [email protected] to find out more.

 Find the Plant List here: