We Must Plant Some Milkweed This Spring! Come To Plantstock V! Purchase Your Native Plants Online From LINPI!

For Plantstock V, we are very excited to announce that not only will we be selling varieties of milkweed, but also offering a variety of Native Plants through a Native Plant Exchange.  LINPI (The Long Island Native Plant Initiative) approached us to ask how they could participate this year at Plantstock.   As they are set up for online sales of the many plants they have overwintered, we offered to help them get the word out.  The whole reason we established Plantstock in the first place was to make it easy for people to source quality native plants, ones that actually are from Long Island.

So here it is:  The link to LINPI’s native plant ordering page!

Note that we are also looking for local boutique growers to promote so that we can offer the native planting community on Long Island the broadest, most biodiverse selection possible.   Email us at info@longislandconservancy.org or phone us at (516)778-9719 to discuss how you can join the Native Plant Exchange.

The Long Island Conservancy will otherwise be selling milkweed.  Here is what milkweed can do:  Less than a year after converting an old driveway to a meadow, we had 40 monarchs come visit one day.  You can help create the same magic in your yard this year!

Join us at Plantstock V, a semi-annual event! The Long Island Conservancy is pleased to offer for sale three varieties of milkweed native to Long Island. These locally grown perennials are essential for supporting the local butterfly population. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to help protect our environment by planting milkweed in your garden.

Long Island’s Three Native Milkweeds

We will have Common Milkweed (great if you have an open field), Butterfly Milkweed (for dry sunny areas) and Swamp Milkweed (for where of course it gets wet).

The Milkweeds Are Locally Sourced From Long Island Natives

The Long Island Conservancy seeks to restore native habitat throughout Long Island.  We will not be offering ‘cultivars,’ that is plants produced through selective breeding such as would be sold in garden stores, but ‘ecotypes,’ that is plants that are locally sourced and grown from local seeds.

Do you want to see more native plants in your yard and have a landscaping service?  We will have cards available to give to your landscaping company so that they know to source at Long Island Natives.

Be A Part of the Solution:  Plant Native Everywhere You Can

Don’t have a landscaper? Or do you have one that is unfamiliar with native plants? Make sure you get a landscaper who knows their plants and how to care for them.  Do you want to support native plantings as a business?  Be a part of Long Island and plant what belongs here!

Is your park or public space in need of some TLC?  You can help Long Island look like Long Island should look like by planting what belongs here rather than whatever is being sold otherwise.  Plants from elsewhere — from Asia, Europe, South America, etc — do nothing for local wildlife.   Choose native and build local habitats for our pollinators, and thus for our birds and the rest of the local food web.

Milkweed Kills Spotted Lanternflies and Their Nymphs

As an extra added bonus, milkweed it turns out kills Spotted Lanternflies. Our native insects “know” not to feed off of milkweed sap.  Spotted Lanternflies, according to new research just published by The Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station, lack the ability to recognize that milkweed is poisonous to most insects.

They have also affirmed that milkweed is toxic to the Spotted Lanternfly.  This accords with our field operations.  We are finding piles of dead Spotted Lanternflies around our milkweed plantings.  Please read “The Spotted Lanternflies Are Here, We Must Prepare!” for more information on this noxious, destructive pest.

As we are reckoning with a infestation of these insects as they make their way east, it is good to know that we have this weapon in our arsenal.

Hamlet Organic Garden Is Where Plantstock Happens

So come to Plantstock V, meet up with fellow plant people, stock up on our three native milkweeds, make your yard beautiful, help the endangered Monarchs, battle the invasive Spotted Lanternfly, and enjoy the magic ambiance of Hamlet Organic Garden, aka The Hog Farm.

They are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. There will be live music, fresh made food and beverages for sale. A discussion of milkweed and how to tend it would be part of the programming.   The HOG farm, in addition, has a variety of programming throughout the year that supports local musicians and artisans, native plantings, and the community of Brookhaven Hamlet in particular.   Check them out!