SustainFloyd is working with the Floyd Native Plant Initiative to bring more native pollinator plants to the community. This Wednesday, May 24, is the first giveaway of seedlings that are being grown by volunteers to research which plants can be recommended to gardeners and growers in the Floyd County.
You can help the project by adopting some of these young seedlings, planting and looking after them and letting us know how it goes. The information from your reports and photos will help us build a data base about the potential of expanding planting of native pollinator plants. This is citizen science!
🌼Join Our Research🌼Adopt Floyd Native Wildflowers! Wednesday, May 24, 2023, 5-7pm at the Floyd Farmers Market pavilion @floydfarmersmarket. Grown by volunteers, we offer these plants freely as a gift to the community. Donations welcome and we hope you’ll share photos of your plants as they grow!
This first giveaway will be followed by several more through the summer as different seedling mature.
The following is a list of the seedlings that are ready for distribution at our first giveaway May 24.
1. Heliopsis helianthoides, Oxeye Sunflower – Showy enough for a traditional ornamental garden.
2. Helianthus giganteus, Tall Sunflower – Fill up a large sunny space for cheap with this keystone species!
3. Cirsium discolor, Field Thistle – A must for any butterfly garden and not aggressive like the invasive Bull Thistle!
4. Agastache nepetoides, Yellow Giant Hyssop – Excellent for the woodland edge and structure for the back of a garden.
5. Rudbeckia laciniata, Cutleaf Coneflower – Big, showy, long-blooming, excellent cut flower.
6. Asclepias verticillata, Whorled Milkweed – Excellent for dry sunny banks, fragrant blooms all summer long, delicate grass-like foliage.
7. Monarda fistulosa, Wild Bergamot – Monarch and native bee favorite, pretty in mixed plantings.
We will provide containers for taking plants home, and hope you’ll get them in the ground as soon as possible. Deer protection is highly recommended, as is mulch and protection from grass and weeds, and watering until establishment.
Floyd Native Plants Initiative is sponsored by Sustain Floyd, Partnership for Floyd, and Mother’s Child Farm @motherschildfarm, with support from Spikenard Farms Honeybee Sanctuary @spikenardhoneybees, Wood Thrush Natives, and a small group of private Floyd community volunteers.