A Native Plant Lover from Abroad
Barbara grew up in England where she learned an appreciation of nature and native plants from her mother who loved wildflowers. She moved to the U.S. when she was 21. She and her husband moved a couple of times before settling in St. Louis. At first, she didn’t have a clue about how plants and wildlife adapt to local conditions. “If a plant grew anywhere in the U.S., it must be fine to plant in my garden.”
In the early days of Wild Ones, she attended meetings with a very small group – about ten people – with Scott Woodbury leading the meetings. She remembers occasional group garden visits but that wasn’t the norm as it is now.
Barbara always enjoyed the annual St. Louis Native Plant Garden Tour sponsored by St. Louis Audubon Society and Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter, and she always loved the plant sales (still does)! One of her favorite purchases is a red buckeye (Aesculus pavia,) purchased from Missouri Wildflowers Nursery, that is now at least 12 feet tall. A favorite perennial is the downy skullcap (Scutellaria incana). She misses the Partners for a Native Landscape seminars that were held pre-pandemic, as they were an opportunity to meet with others who were equally passionate about the environment and the importance of native plants, compared to the vast number of people who don’t recognize their significance. She is glad that the in-person event could resume in 2024.
Her wildlife experiences include watching a red tailed hawk swoop down, snatch a squirrel from a branch of the black walnut tree (Juglans nigra) in her back garden and fly with it to a neighboring property. She has seen birds that she doesn’t normally see such as orchard orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and Baltimore orioles.
When she first moved into her current home, she faced the challenge of removing the invasive plants, primarily wintercreeper. She faithfully patrols her property every winter searching and removing shoots. An ongoing challenge is fighting the invasive plants from surrounding properties.
Barbara has a couple of major projects in the works. She is replacing a big chunk of her back lawn with native plants, and Pretty City will be installing a rain garden in November. Her garden became Bring Conservation Home certified gold in 2016, and she feels that with her latest projects she will be able to achieve the platinum level.
She is active in U City in Bloom, a non-profit organization that designs, plants and maintains over 200 public gardens and planters throughout University City. Two or three mornings a week she helps to lead volunteers in removing honeysuckle and wintercreeper from Ruth Park Woods, a 26 acre woodland adjacent to the University City golf course (see photo). Barbara’s garden will be included in the U City in Bloom 2023 garden tour on October 1. Read more about their efforts at Ruth Park Woods and how to volunteer in this blog post.
Barbara hopes to adjust her schedule so she can attend some of the garden gatherings, and we look forward to seeing her there!
post by Donna Short, Chapter member and volunteer
To learn more about our Keystone Member series and other members we are highlighting
visit: https://stlwildones.org/keystone-members/
