Why a national television program came to Forrest Keeling Nursery

This month, Forrest Keeling Nursery welcomed the production team from Empowered, hosted by Meg Ryan, to our headquarters in Elsberry, Missouri. The segment explores a simple yet powerful idea: native plants are more than landscaping. They are living infrastructure that helps communities manage stormwater, cool urban environments, support wildlife, rebuild soils, and create more resilient landscapes.

Filming highlighted Forrest Keeling's patented Root Production Method^® (RPM), our commitment to seed provenance, and nearly 80 years of helping restore ecosystems across North America. Most importantly, it showcased how native plants can help address some of today's most pressing environmental challenges.

The segment is expected to air on public television stations nationwide later this year. We'll also share highlights from the filming and preview the completed segment at our 2026 Fall Field Day on September 17.

Field Note: The most resilient landscapes often function more like natural communities than traditional lawns.

Across the country, communities are rethinking how landscapes perform. Increasingly, municipalities, designers, and landowners are exploring how native trees, shrubs, and layered plant communities can transform underutilized spaces into functioning habitat—supporting pollinators, stabilizing soils, reducing runoff, cooling urban environments, and creating seasonal beauty in the process.

Our Fall Field Day keynote speaker, landscape designer and author Kelly Norris, has helped draw national attention to this approach, advocating for landscapes that function more like the ecosystems around them: layered, resilient, and rooted in place. These themes—and the growing role of native plants as urban infrastructure—will shape conversations throughout this

year’s Rooted in Natives Field Day, including the introduction of Forrest Keeling Nursery’s new professional guide, Native Plants Are Urban Infrastructure: A Professional Guide to Resilient Landscape Design.

What Makes This Field Day Different?

Agroforestry as Working Infrastructure

Field Note: Productive landscapes and ecological landscapes do not have to be separate systems.

Agroforestry integrates trees and shrubs into working landscapes to improve soil health, water management, biodiversity, and long-term resilience. Practices such as riparian buffers, alley cropping, silvopasture, and food forests show how native plants can provide ecological function while supporting agricultural productivity.

At this year’s Rooted in Natives Fall Field Day, Dr. Chung-Ho Lin will lead a breakout session on integrating native specialty crop trees and shrubs into productive agroforestry systems that generate income while building resilience and habitat. His work highlights a growing recognition that conservation and productivity are not opposing goals—they are often strongest when integrated together.

Blackhaw Viburnum

Tough, durable and overlooked

Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) and Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) are

exceptionally durable native shrubs that deserve wider use in restoration and designed

landscapes alike.

Adaptable to a wide range of soils and growing conditions, both species provide multi-season interest with spring flowers, attractive structure, excellent fall color, and fruit that supports birds and wildlife well into the season.

Their toughness also makes them valuable for urban conditions, naturalized plantings, screening, and habitat-focused landscapes where long-term resilience matters as much as appearance. For projects seeking native shrubs that combine beauty, adaptability, and ecological value, Blackhaw Viburnum and Nannyberry are hard to overlook.

(800) 356-2401 | info@fknursery.com | Received from a friend? Subscribe Now!