Native Plant Sale

Native Plants for Native Birds
By Ann Littlewood, Audubon Volunteer and Tom Costello, Sanctuaries Director

Is it really spring? Far more reliable than Oregon weather, the Audubon Native Plant Sale is scheduled for Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May18, at Audubon House, 5151 NW Cornell Road, 10 AM to 4 PM on both days.

This is our twelfth year of presenting you with a wonderful array of the original green Oregonians: trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, bulbs, grasses, and vines to enhance your garden, whether that garden is a city yard, a gracious estate, or a stream bank.

This year we have the features people have come to expect from one of the Portland area’s premier plant sales—
•    Over 100 species of plants that evolved to grow right here in the Portland area.
•    Fabulous information on each species, printed and hung above the plants, most with a picture showing leaf, flower, fruit or overall appearance
•    A fine team of knowledgeable volunteers ready with information and assistance. (These volunteers grew and donated some of the plants for sale.)
Wonderful books on native plants for sale in the Nature Store

We are excited to offer two free native plant workshops on Saturday May 17th ; Amy Whitworth and Kathryn Leech of The Garden Design Studio will presenting:
•    Enhance Your Garden With Native Plants: Learn how to welcome wildlife to your home and reconnect with the natural world. Saturday, 1PM, Heron Hall
•    Make Your Garden an Urban Sanctuary: Learn how to create your own peaceful place on the planet, Saturday? 2PM, Heron Hall

In addition, this year you will find new opportunities—

•    A “Collectors’ corner” with hard-to-find native plants for the discriminating gardener
•    Sunday after 3 PM, a bargain corner with surplus plants and an assortment of tools and equipment no longer needed at Audubon

Don’t miss two more ways to celebrate native plants!

•    Starting May 5, drop by Audubon House to view our first Native Plant Photography Contest. The winners will be announced at the plant sale, Sunday May 18, at 2 PM.
•    Tuesday, May 13, 7 PM at Heron Hall, Dan Gleason, author of Birds! From The Inside Out, will explore the complex relationships that exist between plant communities and birds. You will discover that many of these interesting associations may occur in your own backyard.

Author and local nursery owner, Kathleen Robson will be on hand on Saturday of our Native Plant Sale weekend to autograph her books and answer questions. Kali is co-author of the recently published Encyclopedia of Northwest Native Plants for Gardens and Landscapes, written with Alice Richter, and Marianne Filbert. Her wide-ranging expertise on botany and gardens makes the Encyclopedia  a wonderfully rich resource of information about the landscape uses of the 100+ native plant varieties that will be on sale during our Native Plant Sale weekend.

Native plants are beautiful, interesting, and trouble-free, plus our birds and butterflies know exactly how to use them. Everyone benefits, including Audubon Society of Portland: profits from the sale fund our habitat restoration and trail maintenance programs.