Monkey plant. Partridge pea. Spiderwort.
Patrick Sherwood and his fellow plant pathology grad students are busy these days tending to a menagerie of native plants. They’re also counting the days to the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Garden’s Spring Plant Sale on the Ohio State campus, May 5-7. That’s when they’ll offer their native plants for sale, hoping to attract customers looking for eco-friendly landscape plants.
Why natives? Native plants tend to be well-adapted to the area’s environment, are less likely to become invasive, and are good for the native fauna. And they’re attractive and low-maintenance. All good reasons to think about adding natives to the garden.
For information about the spring plant sale, including a 16-page list of plants that organizers anticipate will be available, see the arboretum’s website at http://chadwickarboretum.osu.edu.
Patrick Sherwood