As part of an ongoing effort to help support Georgians use more aboriginal flora in their landscapes , University of Georgia Cooperative Extension has partnered with the State Botanical Garden at the University of Georgia , the Georgia Green Industry Association and the Georgia Department of Agriculture to launch the country ’s first Pollinator Plants of the Year Program .
“ We are emotional to be part of the effort to get this amazing program in place for Georgia gardeners , ” said Becky Griffin , UGA Extension school and community garden coordinator and pollinator shelter expert . “ Extension has strengths . The State Botanical Garden of Georgia has strengths ; the Department of Agriculture has strengths and the private sector has its strengths . We have a better prospect of meeting our goal of provide more pollinator habitat if we work together . ”
The coaction will plug in Georgia ’s racy greenhouse industry with expert in aboriginal plant life cultivation and pollinator health to produce more ready - to - flora aboriginal and to boost Georgians to turn part of their abode landscape painting into pollinator home ground . This year the groups will be achieve out to greenhouse grower to advance them to bring out particularly selected landscape plants . Next class the focal point will be on teaching gardeners how to incorporate and keep the pollinator - friendly plants .
The State Botanical Garden at the University of Georgia announced its first Georgia Pollinator Plants of the Year at the Georgia Green Industry Association Wintergreen conference to encourage gullible diligence professionals to suggest that businesses , parks , shoal , city and county governments , and habitation nurseryman add pollinator - friendly aboriginal plants to their landscapes .
The plants were choose by a commission made up of horticulturists , ecologist , entomologists and manufacture professionals . Each works had to be aesthetically pleasing , vendible and , most importantly , provide shelter and food for a number of native Georgia pollinator .
“ This program bring together conservation and horticulture , which do n’t run severally — one support the other , ” said Lauren Muller , conservation outreach coordinator at the State Botanical Garden and coordinator of the Georgia Pollinator Plants of the Year program . “ It is significant for people in the green industry to think about conservation , the body of work we are doing and how we can draw it back into the larger ecological organization . ”
The 2021 Pollinator Plants of the Year are :
These plant life should be available in Georgia garden marrow in later 2020 and early 2021 .
“ This is great because , as an agent , it ’s discouraging when you get a call from someone ask where they can find out these ( native ) plants and we have to say , ‘ Good luck ! you could bug out them from seeded player if you want , ” said Ashley Hoppers , UGA Cooperative Extension agricultural and natural resources broker for Fannin County . “ It really stifles their desire to implant natives because it ’s hard . If ( house gardeners ) ca n’t go to a local mercantile establishment and find that ( plant ) they ’re looking for , it create a negative feedback eyelet . ”
The first annual Georgia Pollinator Plants of the yr opt by the State Botanical Garden of Georgia are ( clockwise from top left ) Conradina ( Conradina canescens ) , also have intercourse as wild rosemary ; Sweet Pepperbush ( Clethra alnifolia ) ; Butterfly Weed ( Asclepias tuberosa ) ; and Downy Goldenrod ( Solidago petiolaris ) .
The partnership behind the Pollinator Plants for the Year is part of a large scale partnership between State Botanical Garden and UGA Extension . Pollinator shelter expert with Extension have mix their Pollinator Spaces project with the garden ’s Connect to Protect pollinator protection efforts . The political platform will keep under Connect to Protect and help ramp up a stronger pollinator protection movement across the state , Griffin said .
The Georgia Department of Agriculture Georgia Grown ’s Pollen Nation program will also join that attempt . The programme ’s destination is to boost the existence of pollinator garden and the multiplication of aboriginal plants , and to help tolerate the light-green industry through increased plant gross sales of pollinator - friendly species , said Matthew Kulinski , deputy music director of marketing at the Georgia Department of Agriculture .
Pollen Nation will provide fleeceable industry professionals with marketing and educational materials and consumers a website with hint on the good pollinators for their landscapes , including the Georgia Pollinator Plants of the Year . That computer program will plunge in March .
curriculum and partnerships like the Georgia Pollinator Plants of the Year broadcast and Pollen Nation not only gain member of the unripened industriousness , but also consumer and the environs , according to Jeremy Oxford , chairwoman of the Georgia Green Industry Association , which hosts the Wintergreen conference .
“ Connecting the superman between the environmental benefits of pollinator plants and Georgia ’s nursery industry produce a profits - win relationship , ” Oxford say . “ The Georgia Grown program and pollinator awards highlight the best of these flora so that agriculturist can make them well useable to the consumer . "
For information on acquiring Georgia Pollinator Plants of the Year or Connect to Protect visitbotgarden.uga.edu/conservation-science/connect-to-protect .
For information on how UGA Extension can help families , business and schools create more pollinator - friend landscapes visitextension.uga.edu/topic-areas/timely-topics/pollinators.html .
Source : University of Georgia ( Merritt Melancon , Maria M. Lameiras )
