Late spring is putting on quite the show at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. The property is dedicated to growing plants native to Massachusetts and New England. Hay-scented ferns, deep pink sheep laurels and delicate hairy beardtongues spring up around a kettle pond. “It’s a plant that absolutely would have been found around here a long time ago,” Chief Horticulturalist David Falk said of the hairy beardtongue. “What they need is difficult conditions, thin soils, rocks.” Plants native to Massachusetts thrive in the area’s low pH, nutrient-poor, sandy soil. “They honestly look their best when they are growing in difficult situations,” Falk said. Butterflies fluttered overhead as bees buzzed around trees. A hummingbird paused on a tree branch. It is in a native plant’s nature to be beneficial to our environment.”Pollinators keep everything going in our ecosystem,” Tim Johnson of Native Plant Trust said. “They pollinate 85% of our plants. Literally, without them, our plants could not reproduce. They’re also really important to our agricultural crops.” It’s not just about showy blooms. At Garden in the Woods, there are ideas for ‘rewilding’ your yard. Carex is a grass native to the northeast, which is drought-tolerant. “I’m very excited to see more and more people looking at native plants,” Johnson said. “Thinking about waterwise gardens, thinking about replacing lawn with plants that don’t require as much maintenance or chemical input.”
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. —
Late spring is putting on quite the show at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. The property is dedicated to growing plants native to Massachusetts and New England.
Hay-scented ferns, deep pink sheep laurels and delicate hairy beardtongues spring up around a kettle pond.
“It’s a plant that absolutely would have been found around here a long time ago,” Chief Horticulturalist David Falk said of the hairy beardtongue. “What they need is difficult conditions, thin soils, rocks.”
Plants native to Massachusetts thrive in the area’s low pH, nutrient-poor, sandy soil.
“They honestly look their best when they are growing in difficult situations,” Falk said.
Butterflies fluttered overhead as bees buzzed around trees. A hummingbird paused on a tree branch. It is in a native plant’s nature to be beneficial to our environment.
“Pollinators keep everything going in our ecosystem,” Tim Johnson of Native Plant Trust said. “They pollinate 85% of our plants. Literally, without them, our plants could not reproduce. They’re also really important to our agricultural crops.”
It’s not just about showy blooms. At Garden in the Woods, there are ideas for ‘rewilding’ your yard. Carex is a grass native to the northeast, which is drought-tolerant.
“I’m very excited to see more and more people looking at native plants,” Johnson said. “Thinking about waterwise gardens, thinking about replacing lawn with plants that don’t require as much maintenance or chemical input.”