by Karen Lanier, owner of KALA Creative
Before I moved to Kentucky, I already knew of the comradery and community spirit of the Lexington chapter of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes. Their first-Thursday meetings allowed ample time for casual conversations over refreshments in addition to learning from guest speakers. Folks could catch up with old gardening buddies or get to know a new guest who was curious about getting started with native plants.
Even as the pandemic shut down in-person meetings, Wild Ones leaders were agile and creative in keeping the community spirit alive. They moved their monthly meetings online and they took a favorite event of the year, the annual plant exchange, and moved it to an online forum.
Give and Receive
Gardens are givers. This time of year, it’s abundantly obvious. Flowers dazzle us with their beauty and fragrance, while giving away nectar and pollen to insect companions. Fruit, seeds, and leaves continue to nourish and protect creatures large and small all year round. The plants are being served as well, through pollination, pruning, and seed dispersal. In this endless system, reciprocity is understood.
So it is with the Lexington Wild Ones Native Plant Exchange Forum. Givers provide a brief description of the native perennials, grasses and sedges, shrubs, trees, vines, and seeds they are offering for free. The receivers do them a favor by thinning where needed and opening space for something new. They also reduce that awful feeling of guilt when a perfectly good native plant gets composted.
Receivers can also request species that they are looking for. Or post a general idea for filling a niche, such as shade-loving ground cover, edible fruit-bearing shrubs for a food forest, or tall, showy plants for a butterfly garden. They may also receive the wisdom and knowledge of the giver who understands the plant’s habits.
Here’s a recent offering posted by Katherine Shaw, an experienced professional landscaper, who generously provided details about a goldenrod: I have a number of Euthamia graminifolia (formerly Solidago graminifolia) to share, aka Narrow-leaved or Grass-leaved goldenrod. This plant really attracts an array of insect visitors and puts on a beautiful display in late summer-early autumn. It is tall ( 4-5′) and cascading, so either needs other tall plants around it, or to be staked. Also, it’s a spreader. In my experience, it’s not terribly so, I would put it in the middle of my aggressive plants list—worth it if you plan accordingly and need an area filled. More moisture = greater spread. To my knowledge, these plants originated from locally collected seed.
Katherine’s motivation for sharing includes education. “Even though goldenrods are so important, people are not as into them. They don’t know which ones to avoid and which ones to try. I don’t want people to be surprised,” she said.
Katherine has participated as both a giver and a receiver. About a year ago, she took up Beate Popkin’s offer of shrubby St. John’s Wort (Hypericum frondosum) and smooth beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis). Beate’s passion for sharing these plants continued this spring. About the beardtongue, she said, “If I could give away every single one, I would do nothing else. It should be in every garden.” Beate Popkin is President of the Wild Ones’ Lexington chapter.
The side benefit from picking up the plants from Beate’s house was the chance to visit with her in her well-designed and beautiful garden. Beate, also a native plant professional, and Katherine discussed the struggles and joys of their projects. “We have different knowledge and styles, ways of addressing problems, and can all learn from each other. It’s important that we pass information on,” Katherine said.
Whether it’s a beginner learning from a pro, or two colleagues commiserating, the sharing extends beyond plants. “That’s what it’s all about,” said Beate.
Inspired to Start Your Own Plant Exchange Forum?
The structure is simple and can be customized to be public or private. Wild Ones uses Groups.io for their plant exchange, and Google Groups is another example of an online forum. Emails are sent to those who sign up to receive them, and they can choose the frequency of updates. Administrators select other settings for the group, such as whether posts must be approved or not.
Here are a few tips gleaned from Wild Ones’ online adventure:
1. Lay the ground rules. Be specific about the purpose of your group. For example, the Lexington Wild Ones Native Plant Exchange is not intended to be a plant identification forum and emphasizes that the plants offered should not be collected from the wild. There is no expectation that a receiver will provide a direct trade, and no money is exchanged.
2. Don’t compete with sellers. Before surfing the forum, buy what you can from your local native plant nurseries and landscapers whose livelihoods depend on growing and selling plants. Katherine said she posted a wish list of plants that she has a hard time finding for sale, which are only a fraction of the plants that she buys.
3. Givers, pot it up. It’s easier to give away plants that have been dug up and potted. Beate suggests making sure you have extra potting soil and pots on hand. Seeds that are easy to collect, like wild indigo (Baptisia australis) are also good giveaways.
4. Receivers, work for it. Some givers have posted on the Wild Ones forum that their offerings are still in the ground. Receivers can come to their yard and dig, and sometimes that makes for a more interesting experience. However, Beate reminds gardeners that some native perennials have deep taproots. What looks like a tiny plant can lead to more work than expected. Come prepared.
Stay Connected
The plant exchange forum is only one way that native plant enthusiasts in Lexington have been staying connected during this year of pandemic and isolation. Mother Nature hasn’t canceled her scheduled events, and many opportunities continue to draw us outdoors. Reforest the Bluegrass, Tree Week, Master Naturalists, and stormwater grants are making strong comebacks, or never took a break. Dedicated volunteers have been removing invasive plants from Hisle Park, Floracliff Nature Sanctuary, Preston’s Cave Spring Park, Raven Run, and local neighborhoods throughout the pandemic.
A great way to find these opportunities is to check the Community Nature Calendar, hosted by TreesLex: https://www.treeslexington.org/community-calendar
Other organizations can add their events and volunteer workdays, and also post the calendar on their own website. It’s a one-stop shop for connecting with the native plant community.
For more information about Lexington’s Chapter of Wild Ones, visit https://lexington.wildones.org/.
Karen Lanier is a writer and educator living in Lexington, Kentucky. She earned degrees in photography, French, and environmental documentation, along with a certificate as a professional environmental educator. She worked as a park ranger in national and state parks from California to Maine, and spent off-seasons printing photos, caring for animals, attending school, working in non-profit administration, and leading photography classes for youth. She now owns KALA Creative, which offers nature connection through writing, images, and workshops. Visit http://kalacreative.net/.