Celebrate Native Plants

Garden in the Woods is closed for the season and will reopen for our Members’ Open House on Saturday, April 16, 2022, and to the public on Sunday, April 17. Meanwhile, Native Plant Trust personal members are invited to make a reservation for Winter Walking on weekdays. See Winter Walking details, including holiday closures, in the box below. The Garden Shop is open by appointment. Email nmacon@nativeplanttrust.org to set up a time to shop.

Native Plant Trust sanctuaries in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont remain open for your enjoyment. Please avoid crowding at popular sites and also observe the rules to protect the plants.

Photo: Autumn at Garden in the Woods, Uli Lorimer ©Native Plant Trust

November 30 is #GivingTuesday, and this year we're asking you to take the SPROUT Challenge. You don't need to wait to donate—and DOUBLE your contribution. SPROUT, the SPecies Rare Occurrence UTility, is an important new tool in the fight to protect New England's native plants. It will streamline the collection and analysis of detailed data by hundreds of our Plant Conservation Volunteers in the field. By supporting SPROUT, you can help Native Plant Trust manage the threats to native plants. Plus, between now and midnight on New Year's Eve, some of our generous friends will match every contribution to the SPROUT Challenge, dollar for dollar. Your support will be DOUBLED. Please consider making your gift today. 

Photo: Kentucky lady's-slipper (Cypripedium kentuckiense), Dan Jaffe ©Native Plant Trust

Conserving Plant Diversity, a new report produced by Native Plant Trust and The Nature Conservancy, provides a scientific framework and detailed roadmap for conservation action and land protection from the species to the parcel scale. To save plant diversity—and thus overall biodiversity—in New England as the climate changes, we need to conserve another 2.3 million acres of climate-resilient land in specific habitats, the report concludes. It also identifies which areas are priorities in each of the six New England states. Visit the Plant Diversity Report page to read more.

Photo: Spruce-fir habitat, Michael Piantedosi ©Native Plant Trust

Native Plant Trust personal members, we invite you to enjoy Winter Walking (weekdays only) by reservation. Winter Walking hours: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., excluding holidays. Please call 508-877-7630 ext. 3801 or 3104 to reserve your time slot. 

The Garden is closed for Winter Walking from Monday, December 20, through Friday, December 24. Winter Walking resumes on Monday, December 27.

Photo: Leaf of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) with frost, Wikimedia Commons

We're looking for storytellers for our annual Botany Story Slam on Saturday, February 26, 2022, 6 to 8 p.m., ET. We plan to hold the slam in person at Garden in the Woods as well as to stream it live. We welcome storytellers from anywhere in the world. Each storyteller recounts an experience on a chosen theme. At the end of the slam, audience members vote for their favorite. If you're a botanist, horticulturist, farmer, land manager, environmental educator, or another plant-related professional, we want to hear your stories, 5-10 minutes long, about your plant adventures.  Winning stories may be aired on the radio. For submission instructions, please email us by December 1: education@NativePlantTrust.org. 

Photo: Native Plant Trust botanist and interns investigate a field, Liza Green ©Native Plant Trust

The City of Somerville, MA, recently passed a Native Plant Ordinance requiring that native species are planted on city-owned land. Green & Open Somerville, an organization advocating to improve and increase green space in Somerville, worked for three years with city council members to initiate and draft the ordinance, which the council passed unanimously this spring. Native Plant Trust Horticulturist and Somerville resident David Falk volunteered on the project for more than three years. He explains how Green & Open Somerville persuaded the city to pass the ordinance in this interview (go to second drop-down box).

Photo: Pollinator garden at Somerville's Morse-Kelley School playground, ©David Falk