🌱 Planning for Your 2025 Native Garden 🌿

[@PlantRelated]

Cathy is a great presenter. I like listening to her

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Thank you for your kind words and for watching our videos!

[@nightofelements888]

I've done bare roots from Prairie moon for trout Lilly and I do not regret it, just gotta make sure you follow their instructions 👍

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Thank you for the insight!

[@donnas3148]

I've purchased bare root virginia bluebells and it was very sucessful

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Thank you for sharing your experience! Virginia bluebells are one of my absolute favorites.

[@Antarctica2025]

Excellent advice!

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Thank you for watching!

[@butterflybush8981]

Please suggest few short plants that can attract fire flies/ glow worms in my urban clay soil yard in Charlotte, NC? Thanx

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Fireflies love grasses and sedges. That is where they most love to hang out to mate. Check out native grasses and sedges in your area. They also love water nearby. It doesn't have to be large. Even a bird bath will do!

[@jonathonalsop2120]

Maybe someone can suggest some plants, but more in general most fireflies spend most of their life as larvae that eat primarily snails, slugs and other soft bodied things. So having habitat for slugs/snails would help, they are generalists as far as what plants they eat, but they need damp cover to not dry out which mostly means leaving leaves and having somewhat dense plantings. Some adult fireflies do eat nectar and pollen but I don't have any specific suggestions. More important is reducing light pollution which plays havoc with fireflies attempting to find mates, unlike many other insects yellow bug lights can still bother them so better to turn lights off or properly shield the bulbs.

[@aprilbreen9207]

I read that their favorite habitat ( overwinter) is native pine tree litter I have inches of wood chips around the tree in my yard; seems to help

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

@@jonathonalsop2120 All great points and so true! Thank you for sharing. For more information on the value of those wonderful fallen leaves, please check out our video "How To Prepare Your Native Landscape For Winter" everyone!

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

@@aprilbreen9207 For sure they prefer yards that are a bit less tidy. A landscape of lawn, brick, and concrete is not going to be hospitable to fireflies. A natural ground cover of fallen leaves or needles is where the larvae of next year's fireflies overwinter. Thank you for sharing your experience!

[@zuzannazmud9043]

You ladies are the best! Almost time to get my winter sowing jugs ready!

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Thank you! It's almost time!

[@PlantRelated]

Awesome. Love planning!

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Thank you! It's so fun.

[@ElahehDaisy]

🎉🎉🎉 I was waiting for your new video 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Hope you enjoyed it!

[@danielcrespo4010]

Possibility Place Nursery is another great native-only nursery! They ship pints and gallons, but they sell larger sizes (5, 10, and 15-gal shrubs and trees) in person as well. They're located in Monee, IL, so a great option for the Chicagoland region.

[@abydosianchulac2]

The pound sign (#) before the numbered pots is meant to stand for "gallon" as far as I'm aware, so those are nominally 1 gallon, 2 gallon, 10 gallon, etc. pots. Doesn't mean that's the true volume, like a nominal 2x4 board isn't actually 2 inches by 4 inches, but that's what that's meaning. I'd also add two more suggestions. 1) Start looking in January or even _now_ to identify the native plant nurseries and sales that will be available in the spring. Up here in NH, our state forestry nursery opened sales last week for April delivery and some shrubs and trees are already sold out, and my county's plant sales will be happening at the beginning of January. I missed both these sales last year because I thought January would be early enough to start planning, and in these cases I was definitely wrong. And 2) If you find those types of wholesale nurseries that won't sell to retail customers and the general public, it can't hurt to reach out and ask them for retail nurseries in your area that have purchased from them in the past, especially if you can name specific plants you're looking for. I found a nursery raising a particular tree I wanted, and they were able to tell me whether that tree would be available next year (as long as stick survives the winter), and what retail spots had established relationships with them for special orders and general stock. Not every wholesaler will necessarily be so forthcoming, but if you're showing you're aware of the order of operations involved and not trying to buy directly from them I've found them to be much more patient at the very least.

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Thank you! This is great insight. It's so important that people don't wait too long. That is a great idea to call a native plant wholesale nursery to see if you can get information as to any retail garden centers they have sold that plant to. As time goes on, and native plants get more and more popular, there will surely be more of them available in the retail market. Garden centers want to make money and they will stock what they know they can sell.

[@lisaripperton6326]

How do you create those colored bubbles in your drop down lists for the different categories AND allow for selection of multiple ones? Those are fantastic but they don’t show up in the spreadsheet I downloaded.

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Hello! Did you download the spreadsheet as another format, or are you using it as a Google Sheet? I did not have a chance to test it as XLS. If you made a copy in Google Sheets, all of the bubbles should carry over to your copy.

[@erichowe1954]

Is this wonderful spreadsheet available to us?

[@sagmorainenativeplantcommunity]

Yes! Please go to: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C2h99ITa_vEkM2Qy5vhrkUh6aaK_5pSFuoPh7yIdJoE/edit?gid=1361498804#gid=1361498804 Make a copy of the spreadsheet and let us know what you think! Feel free to add more columns for your needs. Happy planning!