Leelanau Conservancy holds Memorial Weekend Plant Sale
WFrom staff reports
With the Leelanau Conservancy’s Wildflower Rescue Plant Sale just 10 days away, volunteers were on a mission to dig 500 trillium plants in just over an hour. Four workers met up in Northport to car-pool to the Garthe Farm, where owners Gene and Kathy Garthe met them with open arms.
The morning dig here was a win-win for both. The Wildflower Rescue Committee (WRC) looks for places where plants will be destroyed by construction and then digs up and sells the rescued plants at an annual plant sale on the Leland Village Green over Memorial Day Weekend.
This energetic group has been rescuing wildflowers since 1999. Volunteers have worked since that time not only to save the plants, but to educate the public about the value of the plants to the forest and as part of ecosystems. Wildflower Rescue saves primarily woodland or shade plants that are found in hardwood forests. Any plants protected by Michigan Law are legally dug with permission of the property owner.
The trillium-filled forest on the Garthe farm is encroaching on their organic cherry orchard and must be kept in check—and the Garthes want to see the trillium removed instead of mowed down. “The woods will grow right into the orchard if we let it,” says Kathy. “It’s really important to have what we call ‘air drainage.’” She points to a rise just to the north of where the diggers are working. “We need the winds that come over the hill to keep the area cooler, which helps to reduce disease pressure.”
As we take in the beautiful forested hillside covered in trillium under blue skies, Kathy says, “This view is one of those things where we feel blessed beyond blessings. We’d love to be a dig site every year.” In addition to offering up their wildflower-filled hillside, Kathy also serves on the Leelanau Conservancy’s Board of Directors and in 2015, she and Gene protected 200 acres of their farmland with a conservation easement. The protected land was settled by Gene’s great-grandfather, one of the first fruit farmers in Leelanau County.
As Kathy and Gene return to their orchard, volunteers are hard at work. Shovels in hand, they gently lift the trillium bulbs or rhizomes and remove most of the dirt, then place them into boxes. That makes them easier to transport back to the Swanson Preserve, where another crew is waiting to pot them up for the sale. Still another crew is out at a second site, trying to dig as many plants as they can for the upcoming sale.
As Kathy Frerichs works, she talks about how these beautiful plants are also quite fragile. Picking them injures the plant and can even kill it because removing the flower and foliage robs the plant of its food source for next year.
Before they load their cars, volunteers take an allotted five minutes to dig something for themselves to take home. “That’s why I got involved,” says rescuer Judy Livingston. “I wanted to create a wildflower garden at my house, and then I just got hooked. It’s so beautiful to be out in the woods on a day like this.”
This year’s sale runs Friday and Saturday, May 24 and 25, from 9 am to 4 pm. You can purchase native ferns, trillium and more along with a huge selection of other nursery perennials, trees and shrubs provided by locally owned Four Season Nursery, who will be on hand to answer questions about going native. All proceeds help maintain the Village Green and assist with other Conservancy projects.
Learn more at leelanauconservancy.org
