Last week, I attended a pollinator lecture by the New England Wildflower Society. A botanist by training, I knew quite a bit about pollination, plant growth and the role insects and other creatures play in the plant life cycle, but as part of the presentation, I learned about the many resources that the NE Wildflower Society has for the public. They are very useful for anyone trying to re-establish a natural lake shoreline plant community. Take a look at what they offer through their website:
- GoBotany is an online source for all sorts of botanical information.
- a simple plant key to help you identify for than 1200 New England native and naturalized plants
- PlantShare – an online community of plant enthusiasts and staff botanists who can help with tricky IDs
- Pollinate New England is a new project aimed at expanding pollinator habitat in home gardens across the NE. It includes
- an online Gardening for Pollinators course that is free until August 3, 2018
- an online Garden Plant finder to help you choose plants for your ecoregion
- demonstration gardens, workshops and lectures across the Northeast. There is one scheduled in Jericho VT in early August.
The Society also has several properties where you can stroll through native plant gardens and purchase plant plugs (4″ deep root containers) of native New England plants that they have grown from local seed. There are also several different plant kits available each year, designed for specific habitat conditions or pollinators.
Photo courtesy of the New England Wildflower Society Plant finder
Consider a visit to “Garden in the Woods” in Framingham MA or Nausami Farm in Whately MA. I am already planning a visit to Nausami Farms, about a 2 hr drive from Montpelier.
