Celebrate Native Plants

With COVID restrictions lifted, visitors may enjoy Garden in the Woods without purchasing tickets in advance. Visitors paying admission and members just need to check in at the Visitor Center. Plant shopping at the Garden and at Nasami Farm does not require an appointment. Nasami's Garden Shop is open through Sunday, October 3 (weekends only, 10:30 a.m.–4 p.m.). Garden in the Woods and its Garden Shop are open daily through Friday, October 15, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.  

Native Plant Trust sanctuaries in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are open for your enjoyment. All three states have lifted the mask mandate for outdoor spaces, if you are able to stay six feet away from people not in your household. Please avoid crowding at popular sites and also observe the rules to protect the plants.

Photo: Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) with crab spider, Uli Lorimer ©Native Plant Trust

Native Plant Trust and The Nature Conservancy announce Conserving Plant Diversity, a new report that provides a scientific framework and detailed roadmap for conservation action and land protection at the species, habitat, and parcel scales that will save plant diversity—and thus overall biodiversity—in New England as the climate changes. The report analyzes whether more than a century of conservation has protected enough land in the right places to save the region’s plant diversity. It concludes that we need to conserve another 2.3 million acres of climate-resilient land in specific habitats, and it identifies which areas are priorities in each of the six New England states. This technical report and its mapping tool give policy makers, federal and state agencies, and land trusts in each state the detailed information needed to most effectively spend their conservation dollars. Go to the Plant Diversity Report page to read more.

Photo: Spruce-fir habitat, Michael Piantedosi ©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

The Garden Shops' Fall Native Plant Sale just got better! Whether ordering ahead or shopping in person, all plants are on sale at both locations: Now 40% off for members/30% off for others. See location hours and directions on our Buy Native Plants page. For help selecting the right plants for your place, use our Garden Plant Finder. Not a member yet? Join now.

Photo: Heart-leaved American-aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), ©Uli Lorimer

The season ahead is packed with opportunities for adventures, outdoors and in: Experiment with native plant dyes. Explore a glacial landscape in Connecticut and a river marsh complex in Vermont. Learn how to manage invasive plants. So, open your calendar, flip through our new Fall-Winter 2021 Native Plant Programs catalog—or browse its contents online—and sign up for something you didn't have time to do this summer.

The cusp of fall is one of the most riotously colorful moments in New England's landscape: the meadow asters and goldenrods, the red and blue fruits of viburnum, the elegant spires of black cohosh. Let this last burst of bloom be your inspiration to join, rejoin, or give a membership in Native Plant Trust. Enjoy every fleeting moment of this glorious season.

Photo: New England American-aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), Jane Roy Brown ©Native Plant Trust