Plant Sale to Celebrate the launch of this website!!
Go to our Blog entry for more info!
Purchasing Plants
LERN plants are all grown from seed, not cuttings. Our seeds are collected responsibly from local wild plant populations within an area spanning approximately 60 miles from the Richmond, Virginia.
LERN is primarily selling native plants by pre-order with a scheduled appointment for pick-up. The nursery will be open on a limited basis (a few hours per week) for browsing and plant purchases later in the year. In addition, LERN participates in many local public plant sales and native plant festivals. We will periodically host native plant sales at the nursery as well. Check out the calendar for other opportunities that will arise throughout the year.
Here are the basic procedures for ordering and pick-up:
Order plants through the LERN email: lernrva@gmail.com. Plant orders must be confirmed at least 2 days in advance of pick-up to allow time for pulling the plants to make pick-up as efficient as possible.
Payment is by check or exact cash. Your total will be provided when the pick-up is confirmed.
Pick-ups generally need to be scheduled between 1:00 and 5:00 pm in the afternoon (7 days a week). The nursery is located at 607 Wickham Street near Battery Park.
Please consult the latest plant list for species availability. We value maintaining a large selection of species so we can introduce native plant enthusiasts to species that are not readily accessible through typical commercial outlets. But since space is limited, some species periodically go out of stock.
The following link will take you to our database of available native plants.
What is a local ecotype native plant and why is this important?
A simple definition of a native plant species is one that occurs naturally in a particular region and was present prior to European settlement. But that “region” needs to be defined geographically and we cannot meaningfully say a plant is native without saying where it is native to.
A plant species can have a native range extending for large areas so just because a plant type is identified as “native”, that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily going to be the right plant for your location. For example, red maples are naturally occurring from Florida all the way north into Canada. However, red maples that co-evolved with Florida growing conditions can't survive a Richmond, Virginia winter, and red maples that co-evolved with Canadian growing conditions can't survive a Richmond summer!
A better definition of a native plant is one that:
1. Occurs naturally
2. In its ecoregion and habitat where
3. Over the course of evolutionary time
4. It has adapted to physical conditions and co-evolved with the other species in the system.
Even within their natural range, native plant species are genetically adapted to local growing conditions. This adaptation is typically referred to as "ecotype" or "local provenance. An ecotype is a subset of a species that possesses genetic adaptation to local growing conditions. Sometimes ecotypic adaptations are visible to us as variations in shape, size, or color. Other ecotypic adaptations are not readily apparent, for example, adaptations to various soil chemistries, minimum winter temperatures, and drought tolerance. Even if you can't see the differences, it is still important to get the correct ecotype for your project site.
Seeds and plant material grown from local sources that were cultivated in similar environmental conditions as the planting site are characterized as the “local ecotype.” Research has shown that plants of the same species growing at different locations can be quite different in their appearance, growth, and behavior. These variations have evolved over long periods of time and reflect adaptation to local conditions, such as climate, soil chemistry, and water. A plant with a local ecotype will be better suited genetically to regional growing conditions. The key is that LERN plants are direct descendants of local plants adapted to the climate and soils of the Greater Richmond area. By contrast, most nurseries selling native plants have no idea about the history of the plants and where the parents “grew up”.
Local native ecotype plants help maintain ecological balance, supports local wildlife, and contributes to a sustainable and healthy environment. Local ecotypes benefit our ecosystem in several important ways:
Adaptation to Local Conditions: Because they’re used to our region’s weather patterns, local ecotypes are more resilient to climatological stress. They also require less supplemental watering, which helps conserve our water resources.
Supporting Local Wildlife: Local ecotypes provide essential food and habitats for native wildlife.
Pollinator Support: Local ecotypes provide local pollinators with nutrients crucial to the reproduction of both the plants themselves, and to their pollinators.
Resistance to Pests and Diseases: Native ecotypes are more resilient to pests and diseases than non-native species, which reduces the need for pesticides.
NATIVE PLANT EXTERNAL RESOURCES
The Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora is a partnership between the Flora of Virginia Project, Virginia Botanical Associates and Virginia Tech. Users can search for species by county. site provides range maps, thumbnail sketches, and a few pictures. The maps provide the best information available regarding whether a plant is native to your specific area of Virginia.
The Flora of Virginia Project inspires conservation of Virginia’s native flora through education, outreach, and production of the Flora of Virginia in electronic and print formats. The Foundation of the Flora of Virginia Project Inc. is a not-for-profit organization with a volunteer board of directors. It was founded in 2001 with the mandate to produce a modern Flora Virginica honoring the original, published in the Netherlands in 1739 using the observations and collections of John Clayton. The Flora of Virginia Mobile App puts the full contents of the print Flora into your pocket and shares much of the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora information.
The Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) is a nonprofit organization of individuals who share an interest in Virginia’s native plants and habitats. The website has a host of information related to Virginia’s native plants including events, chapters, and many resources are available for download. The Pocahontas VNPS chapter covers LERN’s service area
The Virginia Native Plant Finder, created by the Virginia Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program, allows users to create a custom list of native plants based on your region (Mountain, Piedmont, Coastal) and habitat conditions. Brochures are also downloadable for the regions, which generally have different soils, elevation, hydrology and climate, so the plants in each are generally different.
The Plant RVA Natives campaign has valuable information on Virginia’s native plants including regional native plant suppliers. It is a marketing effort to showcase the colorful, beautiful variety of plants native to the Virginia Capital Region and promotes the use of plants native to the region in urban and suburban landscapes for their many social, cultural, and economic benefits, and to increase the availability of these native plants in retail centers throughout the region.
The Native Plants for Virginia’s Capital Region, published by the Plant RVA Natives Campaign, showcases the attractive variety of plants native to the Virginia Capital Region, which includes Henrico, Hanover, City of Richmond, Chesterfield, Charles City, New Kent, Powhatan, Goochland, Cumberland, and Amelia. This is a great free downloadabele resource with pictures and thumbnail sketches of several hundred plants native to the Richmond area. Print copies can be ordered online for a reasonable fee through the Virginia Native Plant Society or may be available from campaign partners.
Native Plant Center: Chesapeake Bay Watershed Native Plants for Wildlife and Habitat Conservation (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is an interactive site that allows you to choose plants based on a variety of factors.
The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service’s guidebook, Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping, Chesapeake Bay Watershed is a great PDF document available for download.
The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. For many of the more common species, there are “Fact Sheets” that provide excellent detail.
The North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox contains detailed descriptions and photographs of 4,680 plants that grow in and around North Carolina. Not all of the plants included are native to North Carolina (or Virginia) and the site includes cultivars of many plant species as well. This site can be helpful for Virginia as many of the flowering plants will have similar bloom times and support much of the same wildlife.
The Illinois Wildflower website contains descriptions, photographs, and range maps of many wildflowers and other plants in Illinois. It also has great level of detail and provides abundant information about insect plant interactions. Some of the plants included will not be in Virginia and likewise, some Virginia plants will not be included within this site.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center provides good thumbnail sketches for plants of interest. It also tends to have more photographs of the plants to provide a sense of how they look in a landscape. Their Native Plant Database containing more than 25,000 plantsthe Lady Bird Johnson Native Plant Database containing more than 25,000 plants. You can search by combinations of location, habit, duration, light, soil, bloom characteristics, and several other criteria.
The Missouri Botanical Garden has an online plant finder that includes many native plants which are also endemic to Virginia. The Missouri Botanical Garden is is a center for botanical research and science education and is one of the nation's oldest botanical gardens in continuous operation.
About invasive species …
Invasive plants are non-native species capable of overtaking natural communities. Invasive plant species pose a significant threat for several reasons:
Biodiversity Loss: Invasive plants often outcompete native species for light, water, and nutrients, leading to a decline in native plant populations and overall biodiversity.
Ecosystem Disruption: Invasive plants alter habitat structures and ecosystem functions. They change soil chemistry and hydrology, which negatively impacts flora and fauna that rely on our habitat.
Economic Impact: Managing invasive species is costly to our agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industries.
Human Health: Some invasive plants pose direct health risks by causing allergies or skin irritation. Additionally, they can promote conditions favorable to pests and diseases that affect humans.
Invasive plants are non-native species capable of overtaking natural communities, and many of them are endangering the James River Park System (JRPS). Invasive species can dramatically alter natural ecosystems by decreasing biodiversity (the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem). They are aggressive and can crowd out native plants, increase tree mortality, alter soil composition, and reduce habitat, including food sources, for native birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects.
At the state level, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Natural Heritage Program keeps an updated list of invasive plant species found throughout the state. In addition the site has fact sheets on the most for some of the most troublesome species in Virginia.
Blue Ridge Prism is a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating invasive species in the Blue Ridge region. They have a number of fact sheets for specific invasive plant species with plant descriptions and removal methods.
Mistaken Identity is s great downloadable guide for distinguishing non-native plants from our natives. The guide covers the Mid-Atlantic region which includes Virginia.
Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas, produced by the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a great downloadable guide which also covers the Mid-Atlantic region.
The James River Park Invasive Plant Task Force formed in early 2015 to mount a strategic, coordinated response to the crisis of invasive plant species’ dominance in the James River Park System. The website contains information about how to volunteer as well as useful information about local invasive plants.