IMAGINE Native Plant Farm
IMAGINE Native Plant Farm Hoop House by Sheila Pacilli at Pacilli Photography
ABOUT IMAGINE NATIVE PLANT FARM
The goal of IMAGINE Native Plant Farm is to meet the growing demand for native plant materials for public and private lands and community spaces in the Greater Capital Region, NY. Partnering with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank (MARSB.org) and located at The Bioreserve, a nonprofit organization with farmland located in Glenmont, NY, Home Earth Alliance is working to realize the dream for a large scale nursery focused exclusively on growing straight species native plants from wild seed collected in the ecoregions that comprise the greater Capital Region. Home Earth Alliance is a nonprofit working to support biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and promote environmental justice. Getting the right plants in the right place is a significant part of that puzzle.
Good, Better, Best: Where Your Native Plants Come from Matters!
Not all native plants are equal. Here are some questions to consider when buying native plants:
1) Is that plant actually native to the ecoregion where you live? If not, it is not native for you.
2) Is it a naturally found “straight species” or is it a nativar? A nativar is a native species genetically manipulated for bloom size or color. Those modifications sometimes leave the nativar less resilient and less valuable to local pollinators and insects.
3) Was the plant produced from clipping? This is a form of cloning that eventually dilutes natural genetic diversity.
4) Where did the seeds for that plant originate? Were they wild collected from straight species in your ecoregion? Ecotype native plants have co-evolved with the web of other native microorganisms, plants, and wildlife in response to local soil and climate conditions over thousands of years. They offer the greatest ecological benefit in your yard and garden.
Emerging research strongly suggests that nativars do not, in most cases, have the same value to pollinators as straight species natives. And when we plant nativars, or even straight species that sourced from outside our region, and they cross-pollinate with native populations here, they may degrade the genetic adaptability and resilience of our local native plant populations. Aster, lobelia, goldenrod, and milkweed from Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and even western NY are not the same as aster, lobelia, goldenrod, and milkweed from local populations.
As we like to say, there are good, better, and best options. IMAGINE Native Plant Farm is working to provide you with the very best options whenever possible - straight species natives, sourced from our ecoregion and best for our ecoregion - so you can be sure your efforts at ecological restoration are . . . well . . . the best! Beware of “green washing.” If it is commercially mass produced, it is likely not a straight species native and not sourced from our ecoregion.
Cofounders, Pam Skripak and Kate Brittenham. Photo courtesy of Pacilli Photography
OUR PLEDGE
We will always tell you where our plants come from, and whenever possible, provide you with native plants that are grown from ethically wild collected seed in the eco-regions that make up the greater Capital Region.
Wild seeds responsibly collected from, and native plants lovingly grown for, our local ecoregions.
IMAGINE!
We can all be educated and inspired to do more, but if we can’t find and afford the eco-region specific native plant materials we need to transform our yards and gardens, then we will fail to have the intended impact.
