By Jackie Trickel
Volunteers from the North Carolina Native Plant Society teamed up with native plant nurseries and partner organizations during the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh. Our permanent NCNPS area is where we joyfully educate and advocate about the beauty and importance of native plants to enthusiastic fair goers. As this was our second year with the covered open-air booth and our 17th year with the original garden, we hope we improved the overall experience for the fairgoer.
Native Plant Society volunteers carried the day(s)
Forty-six volunteers from the NCNPS made sure the booth and gardens were covered throughout the eleven days of the fair. These volunteers contributed 389 hours of service to make sure the NCNPS message went far and wide. We answered questions from fairgoers about how native plants will help the birds, bees, and butterflies, how to reduce invasive plants, and how to talk to HOAs about relaxing rules for native plants. They signed up new members, demonstrated our new container gardens, gave away native plants and the new NCNPS sticker, and showed visitors how to use the QR code to bookmark our website. In short, native plants ruled the day!
Native plant nurseries and partner organizations sent volunteers
Volunteers from five native plant nurseries included Meadowflower Farms, Aberdeen; Haw Honey Nursery, Graham; Rachel’s Natives, Pittsboro; Deep Roots Nursery, Durham, and Flower Moon Nursery, Morganton. They helped get the word out on the many native plant nurseries in NC.
Eight partner organizations served with us: Coastal Landscapes Initiative; two chapters of the NC Wildlife Federation, South Wake Conservationists and Tri-County Conservationists; Wake Audubon Society; North Carolina Botanical Gardens; New Hope Audubon Society; Friends of Plant Conservation; and Wild Ones of Central Carolina. Their volunteers spread the news of the value of native plants in the landscape and how their organizations contribute to this worthy cause.
Financial donations were collected thanks to ten North Carolina nurseries for providing native plants to give away: Dirt Bag Gardens, Chapel Hill; Dutch Buffalo Farm, Pittsboro; Flower Moon Nursery, Morganton; Flowering Earth Natives, Rougemont; Haw Honey Nursery, Graham; Meadowflower Farms, Aberdeen; Mellow Marsh Farm, Siler City; Painters Greenhouse, Old Fort; Rachel’s Native Plants, Pittsboro, and Uwharrie Mountain Native Plant Farm, Troy.
A quick shout out to a few special volunteers: Ann-Marie Gerney, Bill Travers, and Julie d’Ablaing for many hours of service before, during and after the fair. Richard Stephenson for creating a large banner to hang in the back of the booth and for building beautiful wooden plant boxes, all donated complements of Flitch Furniture in Raleigh. Fran Pelzman for redoing our permanent welcome sign in the garden and creating a beautiful native plant poster for use in the booth, donating both to us.
By Jackie Trickel
Native Plant News – Spring 2024
Jackie Trickel is a full-time grandma to three beautiful grandkids and an observer of all nature! Her passions include restoring native plants and the habitats they support with a special fondness for the longleaf pine ecosystem. She is education chair of the NC Native Plant Society and a member of the Margaret Reid (Triangle) Chapter; a Virginia Tech Hokie; a NC Certified Environmental Educator, and a retired assistant park manager with Wake County Parks.