Cincinnati Zoo to continue Native Plant Sale at Mason’s Bowyer Farm in May
Sponsored by Klosterman Baking Company, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden will continue its popular Native Plant Sale with two Saturday dates in May, one on May 4 and one on May 18 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bowyer Farm.
“We’ve been doing the Native Plant Sale for a few years, and it’s been growing every year,” says Brian Jorg, Manager of the Native Plant Program at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. “Currently, we are offering over 250 species of Eastern Native Wildflowers, trees and shrubs. We try to select varieties that you’re not going to find at other sources.”
Attendees can expect to find a wide variety of Native Plants that do well in a garden, he says. Also, right now, there is a lot of public interest in Monarchs and pollinators, and that interest has caused people to start digging into it, saying, “I can make a difference in my own backyard.” Then, the next step is finding those pieces that they need to make this all work.
With all the different Native Plants available from the Cincinnati Zoo, gardeners can choose what they need to put into their own backyards and help those species out.
Grown by the Cincinnati Zoo horticulture staff, the Native Plant Sale offers a wide selection of reasonably priced, well-grown, hard-to-find and ecologically important native plants for community members to enjoy. Native plants, including those found throughout the Bowyer Farm ecosystem, will be for sale.
“Our job is to make more diversity available to the public,” Jorg says. “One of the ideas of the Native Plant Program is to go out and find important Native Plants that aren’t available. We take them and trial them to see if they are great plants and they grow well in the garden. We propagate them, and if everything is good, then, we try to offer it to the public.”
The Cincinnati Zoo has a Native Plant Program that was started about 20 years ago. When it comes to trialing, the zoo is always on the lookout for new plants. Once the plants are pushed out into the industry, everyone from home gardeners to nurseries will have a more diverse palette of Native Plants available to them.
“Anybody can improve the habitat in their own backyard and truly make a difference,” says Jorg.
Registration is free, but attendees should register at its website. (There is limited parking, so guests are asked to reserve a spot so they can park.) Bowyer Farm is at 2210 Mason-Montgomery Road in Mason. Payment for all sales is by credit card only.
