The Native Plant Sale
The Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center hosts the Missouri Wildflowers Nursery native plants sale twice a year, and it’s such fun to pick up varieties that are nearly fool-proof to grow for our zone 6b garden.
Last March, I was invited to present at the Native Plant Seminar, in which I showed examples of past CLEMENTINE bouquets that featured native flowers and foliage. And again in May I hosted a workshop at the nature center where I guided a small class through gathering native plants and arranging them on-site. It was such a wonderful experience to work solely with native flowers! While we do have quite a few native flowers already, I am loving adding more to our landscape.
The absolute best part of the Missouri Wildflowers Nursery sale? You can pre-order on their website ahead of time, and they will bring your order to the Nature Center sale. They ask for about a two week notice in ordering before the event. It truly takes the stress away from figuring out the plants you want on the spot!
Pictured above is alum root, the native coral bell variety for us. It’s really lovely and understated. It was a great find on-site at the sale!
My wishlist included Solomon’s seal, wild hydrangea, mock orange, climbing prairie rose, and purple beard tongue. But I decided to pick up a couple more southern blue flag irises, as I already have a few plants of it in my cottage borders and enjoy it immensely.
Wild sweet William and wild geranium are such springtime favorites! Wild geraniums are not a suitable cut flower, but add real charm to the garden.
My recommendation is to buy the largest pot available of all varieties you are adding to your garden, but especially native flowers! Native flowers are said to, “sleep, creep, then leap.” Which essentially means they need three years growing in the garden to really establish and flourish.
Of note: it’s important to shop both native plant sales to have your pick of flowers for all the seasons! Last September I ordered smooth phlox, rose verbena, blue vervain—varieties that aren’t typically available in the spring.
What native flowers are you inspired to add to your garden?