Plant Sale to celebrate the launch of our Website!

We finally have our website up and running! It will always be a work in progress, but it’s up and it’s time to celebrate! (Also, we need to clear out some space at the nursery to make room for us to propagate more plants … so a plant sale seems in order.) Starting today, the following species will be on sale at these prices:

• Partridge-Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), an annual that is flowering now and if you plant it now it will reseed in your garden for next year. Sale Price: $8/2 Qt or $3 a plug (minimum 5 plugs).

  Then we have a whole bunch of perennials flowering NOW that are perfect to plant mid-summer. So long as you have shady, moist conditions in your yard, now is the perfect time to plant them:

• Winged Monkeyflower (Mimulus alatus): Sale price: $8/2-qt

• Shrubby St. John’s-wort (Hypericum prolificum): Sale price: $15/large tree pot

• Spotted St. John’s-wort (Hypericum punctatum): Sale price: $8/2-qt

• Tall St. Andrew’s Cross (Hypericum hypercoides): Sale price: $15/large tree pot

Click here to see our complete plant list.

To order plants, email lernrva@gmail.com and put “Plant Sale Request” in your header. Orders must be confirmed at least two days in advance of pick-up to allow us time to pull them (so we can make your pick-up as efficient as possible!).

About LERN plants and what makes them different

This article is reproduced from the RCE website with some updates.

All gardeners have experienced the heartbreak of watching helplessly as new plants wither and die in their landscape. The potential list of reasons for failure is long; but it starts with the initial quality of the plant and how it was treated in the nursery.

Soil Matters: You want plants that thrive AFTER they are planted in your landscape.

All nurseries want to sell plants that “look” good. But sometimes the methods used to achieve this goal produce an inferior plant with reduced chances of survival in the real world. First of all, many nurseries use artificial soils that are very “light,” which makes it easy for the roots to grow. As a result, the plants need to be watered frequently; the plants are not exposed to “living soil” with its diversity of microorganisms; and the roots never have to work at pushing through heavy soils.  Secondly, the plants are often provided with a steady dose of synthetic fertilizers that stimulate lots of green growth and blooms to make them look attractive. In some cases, the plants are provided minimal exposure to rain and wind as well. Then the poor, unsuspecting gardener takes the naïve, chemically-addicted plant home and puts it in a hole in the ground. Good luck!!

By contrast, LERN uses local soil to nurture its plants. Our pots are “heavy” because the soil contains a combination of clay, silt, sand, and organic material which holds more water than typical potting soils. In addition, it is anticipated that the soil harbors a typical community of microorganisms. Organic fertilizers such as compost are used sparingly to amend soils as needed to maintain healthy plants, and all plants are grown outside with exposure to the prevailing weather, year-round. The only exception is the occasional, short-term use of row covers when winter temperatures threaten to kill plants that are vulnerable while in pots. In short, LERN plants are grown under the most natural conditions possible to avoid unnecessary shocks when plants get placed in their new homes. You would not raise a child in a bubble – so why purchase plants grown under completely artificial conditions?

Size Matters: Plant Small and Grow Some Patience.

Another common reason for the failure of nursery-grown specimens is that plants can become “potbound” and develop “circling” or “girdling” roots. This problem can be especially fatal for trees, but the symptoms often won’t appear for several years. Ultimately, the property owner is left with a dead tree that may have been very expensive and is no longer under warranty. Worse yet, property owner may take the blame for a fatality that was the result of poor nursery practices and conclude that she has a “brown” thumb.

While there are planting practices that can help overcome plants with girdling roots (see this PDF), the best solution is to buy a plant without the problem. Start by fighting the temptation to buy the largest plant available. The larger the plant, the longer it has been confined in pots and the more likely it has become potbound with circling roots. Also, larger plants cost more and require frequent watering to become established. It takes a lot of water to maintain all that foliage on a larger plant.  Why spend your time watering plants when you could be the one enjoying a cool drink on a hot day?

The LERN philosophy is that small is better. Establishing a plant in its permanent home as early as possible minimizes maintenance and maximizes success. In addition, it allows us to sell plants for a reasonable price that will require less watering to get established. In exchange, your part of the bargain is to develop patience. Instead of demanding an instant landscape or instant shade tree, enjoy the process of watching your plants grow up. For perennials and grasses, small RCE plants will catch up by the second growing season. For trees and shrubs, it may take a little longer depending on the species.

With most plants, our goal is to sell them by the end of the first growing season – before there is an opportunity to become potbound. (The one exception is slower growing trees and shrubs – e.g., azaleas or blueberries.)

Some backstory: How did LERN get established?

LERN was the natural progression of the Reedy Creek Environmental (RCE) organization, started by LERN president Bill Shanabruch. Reedy Creek Environmental was created in 2016 to address the scarcity of native plants in the metro Richmond, VA area. The recognition of this need evolved over many years and grew directly out of his concerns about water quality.

During the previous 15 years, Bill was employed by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) as an aquatic biologist, spending most of his time performing assessments of freshwater streams. Over time, his primary work function evolved into “documenting the deterioration of Virginia streams” (there being precious little progress in improving the streams he identified as impaired).

In an effort to contribute to the improvement of Virginia’s water resources, Bill joined with others in the community to form the Reedy Creek Coalition (RCE) in 2008. RCE committed itself to addressing the root causes of the water quality problems in Reedy Creek. As an urban watershed, this entailed reducing the pollution coming from rooftops, parking lots, lawns, and other sources of stormwater runoff. RCE even partnered with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to create a watershed protection program for private property owners. 

The original pilot program highly encouraged vegetative solutions (rain gardens, bayscapes and tree planting) to help solve stormwater problems. Native plants were emphasized because of their benefits to water quality, as well as to enhancing the health and diversity of terrestrial habitats.

During its implementation of the watershed protection program, members of RCE learned about Earth Sangha, a non-profit in northern Virginia that supplies native plants of local ecotype. Earth Sangha collects seeds from healthy populations of local natives, then germinates them and sells the seedlings to the local community. Earth Sangha also provides plants for a variety of habitat restoration projects. The key idea is that its plants are direct descendants of local plants that had originally adapted to the climate and soils of northern Virginia. (By contrast, most nurseries that sell “native” plants have no idea of their origins.) RCE modeled itself after Earth Sangha, and remain indebted to Lisa Bright, its co-founder, for her inspiration, knowledge, and support.

Through the continuing efforts of RCE, the metro Richmond community could now buy plants derived from seeds known to have originated within its own local area.

But there was so much demand! As RCE grew, it became apparent that expanding this work would be critically important. For that to happen, changes needed to be made. A for-profit framework just didn’t seem to be the best fit: Many seeds came from public places such as James River Park (with permits, of course) and the plants were going back to public places via the work of volunteer organizations (whose members had also expressed interest in participating in the nursery operations). Furthermore, grants and donor contributions would be needed to really bring things up to speed.

In the end, transitioning RCE into the nonprofit Local Richmond Ecotype Natives (LERN) made the most sense. As a nonprofit, LERN can now garner the support of volunteers to increase our capacity to produce native plants – allowing us to expand the outreach and educational efforts that RCE performed.