Pennsylvania Native Plant Society to Host Annual Festival

In Centre County, agriculture is an essential industry.

With over 1,000 farms across the county, having a green thumb is common. However, when it comes to personal gardening, Merrill David, a board member of the State College-based nonprofit Pennsylvania Native Plant Society, said people often design outdoor spaces with their own values in mind.

David said she used to garden based on the values that were taught to her.

“I gardened the way my parents did, and chose plants based just on what I thought were pretty or nice green fillers, like hostas, forsythia, petunias, hybrid non-native roses,” she said. “I never considered how my planting choices affected every other species living outside my house.”

Since joining the Pennsylvania Native Plant Society, David said she has learned alongside others the growing issues of non-native plants across the country.

To help educate the community, the Pennsylvania Native Plant Society hosts an annual Central PA Native Plant Festival, which provides resources on native plants in Pennsylvania and has plant vendors in attendance to sell native plants.

Native plants provide food and habitat needed for native wildlife to survive, while non-native plants fail to support wildlife, David said.

“Over the last several decades,” she said, “the rate of habitat loss — with development and deforestation, increase of invasive species, use of pesticides and planting of lawns and exotic ornamentals — has had a devastating effect on our native flora and fauna.”

For example, the American bumblebee has disappeared from eight states across the U.S., according to Environment America. David said this is linked to the planting of invasive species.

“Human values impact natural systems, and it’s all connected,” she said. “What you plant or don’t plant matters. Even if you have the tiniest plot, or just potted plants on your terrace, you really can make a real difference.”

This year, the annual Central PA Native Plant Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 4, at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center.

Attendees will have the opportunity to speak with agriculture professors and native plant vendors while shopping for new additions to their personal gardens. The event will also include live music, food vendors, information booths and sessions on practical native gardening and common garden insects.

See the vendor lineup and plant lists on the PA Native Plant Society website.

“To see the crowds of people at the Native Plant Festival, breathing the spring air, excited to procure their new plants and eager to understand more about how we can be responsible stewards of our environment to help turn things around simply by what we plant,” David said, “that’s incredibly rewarding.