Saturday, March 28, 2015

7-10 p.m.

First Unitarian Universalist Church, Elm St. and Illinois Ave, across from Wick Park on Youngstown’s North Side

It’s the party of the year for those who want to celebrate the Earth and native-plant communities. Join us to consume fine chocolate, drink a little wine, mark Earth Hour with candlelight and poetry, listen to live jazz by the Jeff Bremmer Duo, and dance to the sounds of the Guilty Pleasures as the evening draws to an exuberant end. And in the process, we raise money to help fund Treez Please’s purpose: building native plant communities and pollinator habitat in Youngstown, Ohio.

Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and include all the fun and two glasses of wine–or soda/sparkling cider. Students with ID can purchase $10 tickets. Please see our homepage for payment link or mailing address for checks; tickets will be held at the door for you.

Pollinator perennials–all neonic*-free–will be available at the North Side Farmer’s Market beginning in early April. The plants will have come back from winter dormancy ready to begin their journey to pollinator-magnet  and host-plant status in your yard or reclaimed city lot. This year, we will have several species for shady areas, in addition to the sun-lovers.

The cost is $3.25 per 2.5″ pot, which includes a small profit for Treez Please and sales tax. If you buy 10 or more, the cost is $3/pot

Plan to start your pollinator perennial garden with these easy-to-grow, ready-to-go pollinator favorites. These natives have NOT been treated with any chemical pesticides, as most retail plants have. That means that the bees will not be harmed by *neonicotinoids that remain in the plant’s system (see Friends of the Earth’s Bee Action page, www.foe.org/beeaction.

Pollinator Perennials Available in Spring 2015

FOR SUNNY LOCATIONS

• Prairie Onion (Allium stellatum)
• New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-anglicae)
• Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
• Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum)
• Ox-eye Sunflower (Helianthus helianthoides)
• Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosum)
• Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa)
• Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginiana)
• Large Flowered Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus)
• Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea)
• Hoary Skullcap (Scutellaria incana)
• Butterfly Weed (Aesclepias tuberosa)
• Rough Blazingstar (Liatris aspera)

 FOR SHADE

• White Woodland Aster (Symphyotrichum divaricatus)
• Alum Root (Heuchera villosa, var. Atropupurea)
• Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata)
• Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
• Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
• Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
• Sweet Joe Pye (Eupatorium pupureum)

GRASS

Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans)

This selection provides a range of bloom times and cultural requirements (sun, part-sun, shade, dry, moist, etc.), and species that are reliably easy to grow.

Each 2.5″ pot will include information on the plant, so you’ll have it when you put the plant in the soil. If you want to know more about any of these species, enter either the common or the botanical name in the Search box at www.prairienursery.com, the source company for these plants.

New this year from Treez Please, POLLIPOPS (pollinator seed pops) now available at the North Side Farmer’s Market (Saturdays 10-1 at the Unitarian Church across from Wick Park).

For only 50 cents a pop, you can help create food and nectar for native bees and butterflies, hummers and other birds. Toss them widely and, in the best sense of guerilla gardening, there’s a good chance they will establish out of the way of mowers and herbicides.

Full instructions are included, along with lists of species that go into the pops. We have pollipops for moist sunny areas, pops for dry sunny areas, and FREE pops just for monarch butterflies made with common milkweed.
And check this out for an aerial perspective on pollinator seeding: bee-friendlier.com/flower-bombing/