Growing Perennial Pollinator Plants

Our Conservation Nursery is known for growing native trees and shrubs for conservation projects. This year, we added perennial pollinator plants to our offerings!

The Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forest reached out to us to help them grow native perennial pollinator plants for future conservation/restoration projects around the Northeast. They have a store of seeds that were collected years ago by various professionals in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. They were having trouble finding a grower to help start the project, but once we heard about it, we were happy to help. We can easily include these new types of plants into our existing nursery set-up, and it’s a fun, new project that will provide local seeds and plants for conservation projects that are also good for pollinators!

We are now growing 14 different species of perennials, including:

milkweed
upland bentgrass
Canada bluejoint
nodding sedge
poverty oatgrass
flat top white aster
Canada wildrye
Virginia wildrye
boneset
fowl meadowgrass
black eyed Susan
little bluestem
New England aster
blue vervain

After two to three years, we will collect the seeds and make a conservation seed mix that then we can sell back to the National Forest and anyone else that needs local seed. We will also be able to sell plugs and container plants. So be on the look-out for our Intervale-raised perennial pollinator plants in the future!