As MPF's prairie acquisitions have grown in recent years, so have its prairie stewardship needs.

MPF is seeking a full-time Prairie Stewardship Assistant to work with MPF's Director of Prairie Management, Jerod Huebner. We invite qualified applicants interested in becoming a part of MPF's award-winning conservation work.

Find the job description and application instructions here. Applications will be accepted through April 12, 2024.

March 27: Grow Native! Webinar: Gardens of Excellence: Urban Native Landscape Design

Urban landscapes offer no shortage of unique opportunities for form and function in native plant garden design. Join Will Gibson and Christopher Carl, two landscape designers and Grow Native! professional members whose projects have been recognized in the Grow Native! Gardens of Excellence program, as they discuss the technical and aesthetic aspects behind these urban gardens. 

Will Gibson, founder of Down to Earth Service/Green Thumb Gardens in Kansas City, will discuss design details of the Bridge Space native gardens in Lee’s Summit and Remodel Moore native gardens in Kansas City, Missouri.

Christopher Carl, artist and founder of Studio Land Arts in Belleville, Illinois, will discuss the inception and the growth of the Pilot Plot gardens he designed in Granite City, Illinois.

Wednesday, March 27 at 4:00 p.m. This free, 40-minute presentation will be followed by a question/answer session. A link to a recording of the webinar will be emailed to registrants. Register here.

Join us for Grow Native!'s first Brews and Blooms native plant education event in partnership with Civil Life Brewing Company at their South City brewery, 3714 Holt Ave., St. Louis, Saturday, April 6 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Grow Native! will offer a free native plant giveaway (one per household, while supplies last), a container gardening demonstration, and gardening advice from Missouri native plant and landscaping experts. Grow Native! merchandise will also be for sale, including native plant garden signs manufactured in Washington, Missouri. 

Native vines are often overlooked in native landscaping, yet can fit into any landscape situation. Learn how to design with and steward native vines from veteran native horticulturist and Grow Native! professional member Scott Woodbury in this Grow Native! Master Class.

Many species of small vines work well for light posts and for rambling over a boulder or retaining wall. Large vines grace trees and buildings. Vines can grow as groundcovers. There are vines for hummingbirds, vines for bees, vines with showy flowers, and vines that produce fruits for birds. Ever wonder if grape vines kill trees? This class will answer this question. Scott will also cover pruning and training vines and show you how to cover an ugly concrete wall with beautiful native vines. 

Wednesday, April 10 at 4:00 p.m. This 50-minute presentation will be followed by a question/answer session. A private link to a recording of the master class will be emailed to registrants. Free for MPF members and Grow Native! professional members. $15 for non-members. Register here.

MPF's Grow Native! program, in partnership with the Specialty Crops Program at Lincoln University (LU) Cooperative Extension, is seeking input on the availability of ferns that are native to the lower Midwest, as well as consumer preferences. Data is being collected via two surveys – one for plant suppliers (growers and sellers) and one for gardeners and other plant consumers.

The surveys, which are available online, are part of the “Growing Native Ferns as Specialty Crops in Missouri” grant to the Specialty Crops Program at Lincoln University Cooperative Extension, funded by the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Ultimately, the goal of the grant is to promote native ferns as specialty crops and to make native ferns more readily available in the nursery trade. Future components of the project will include workshops, demonstration plots, field days, garden tours, and publications.

We would appreciate a few minutes of your time to complete the online survey that is applicable to you by April 12:

• If you are a plant consumer, including a home gardener or a plant professional such as a landscape architect or landscape designer, please complete the General Survey here.
• If you are a plant supplier, even if you also offer other services, please complete the Plant Supplier Survey here.

Your responses will help further LU’s research, and you will be entered into a drawing to receive a guided tour and a Grow Native! cap.

Photo of frogs on native ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) by Randy Tindall

April 13: MPF Native Plant Sale at Bradford Research Center in Columbia

MPF will hold a native plant sale on Saturday, April 13 at the MU Bradford Research Center, 4968 S. Rangeline Rd, Columbia, Missouri from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Buy native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs, trees, vines, and sedges from six Grow Native! professional members: Gaylena’s Garden, Hawthorn Chapter of Missouri Native Plant Society, Missouri Wildflowers Nursery, Ozark Soul, Prairie Hill Farm, and SunRise Gardens. A wide variety of species suitable for a diversity of growing conditions will be available.

Shoppers can stroll through the sale and purchase plants from each vendor. Plants can also be pre-ordered and be ready for pick up at the event. Find pre-order information here. Vendors will donate a portion of plant sale proceeds to benefit MPF's conservation work.

Photo of mist flower (Conoclinium coelestinum) by Mervin Wallace

April 15: Callery Pear Buyback Registration Deadline

The Missouri Invasive Plant Council, administered by MPF, has organized a Callery Pear "Buyback" event in 15 Missouri cities on April 23, in partnership with Forest ReLeaf of Missouri, Forrest Keeling Nursery, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), and Deep Roots Kansas City (with locations in Kansas City and Kansas).

Registration for the Buyback event closes on April 15 (Note: registration for the St. Louis and Farmington locations is closed). Learn more about the event and register here.

Through this program, take a photo of your cut-down Callery pear tree and bring it to an event site to redeem for a free, non-invasive replacement tree donated by Forest ReLeaf and Forrest Keeling Nursery. These 4- to 5-foot-tall replacement trees are in 3-gallon containers. Find information on invasive Callery pear, identification, and control information here.

MPF will hold a native plant sale on Saturday, April 20 at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center, 4750 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

A wide variety of native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs, trees, vines, and sedges will be available for sale from five Grow Native! professional members: Ozark Soul Native Plants, Gaylena’s Garden, Missouri Wildflowers Nursery, City Roots Nursery, and Sow Wild Natives.

Shoppers can stroll through the sale and purchase plants from each vendor. Shoppers can also pre-order plants and have their orders ready for pick up at the event. Find pre-order information here. Vendors will donate a portion of plant sale proceeds to benefit MPF's consesrvation work.

Make plans to attend one or more of the other MPF spring native plant sales listed below and peruse the grownative.org website to find inspiration and resources to create native plant shopping lists:

• Saturday, April 27, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Bass Pro Shops® Sportsman’s Center, 1 Bass Pro Drive, Springfield, Missouri
• Saturday, May 11, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., World Bird Sanctuary, 125 Bald Eagle Ridge Rd., Valley Park, Missouri
• Saturday, May 11, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center, 4750 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri
• Saturday, May 18, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Bass Pro Shops® Sportsman’s Center, 3101 Bass Pro Drive, Columbia, Missouri
• Saturday, May 25, 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Mother’s Brewing Company, 215 S. Grant Ave., Springfield, Missouri

Photo above of purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea) by Carol Davit

MPF’s Grow Native! program welcomes 11 new Certified Pros into the Grow Native! Professional Certification Program (GNPCP), which provides a consistent credential in the use of native plants for landscaping in developed areas of the lower Midwest. Grow Native! offered a testing opportunity for the GNPCP on March 1 at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Commerce Bank Center for Science Education in St. Louis.

The following individuals earned certification after the March test: Chuck Caverly of Grow Native! member Native Landscape Solutions; Deanna Deterding of Grow Native! member Litzsinger Road Ecology Center; Joseph Enger of Grow Native! member St. Louis Community College at Meramec, Horticulture Program; Matt Hagemann of Grow Native! member Focal Pointe, Inc.; Cathy Holloway of Grow Native! member Forrest Keeling Nursery; Kirsten McIntyre of Grow Native! member Immersion Landscaping; Jonathon Moler of Grow Native! member City of Springfield [MO]; Allegra Pierce of Grow Native! member Pretty City Gardens and Landscapes; Gabe Presley of Grow Native! member DTLS Landscape Architecture; Devan Rupel of Plant Friend; and Carli Tonner of Grow Native! member Greenscape Gardens. These newly Certified Pros join those who previously earned certification since the program launched in 2022.

Additional 2024 testing opportunities are scheduled for June 28 in Columbia, August 9 in Kansas City, and December 13 in Springfield. Learn more about the program here, and see a list of all of the Grow Native! Certified Pros here.

April 28: St. Louis Partners for Native Landscaping Native Plant Fair

The St. Louis Audubon's Partners in Native Landscaping Spring Series, of which MPF's Grow Native! program is a partner, will hold a Native Plant Fair on April 28 from

10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Beyond Housing Headquarters, 6506 Wright Way, St. Louis, Missouri.

The event will include a rainscaping tour at 11:00 a.m., a native plant sale with Grow Native! professional members Missouri Wildflowers Nursery, Forrest Keeling, Papillon Perennials, and River City Natives selling a wide variety of native wildflowers, grasses, sedges, vines, shrubs, and trees. In addition, many groups, including MPF and its Grow Native! program, will have informational booths. Here is information about native plant sale preorder information and other details.

Many spring ephemeral wildflowers have an ingenious way of spreading their seeds. Plants including trout lily, violets, bloodroot, Dutchman’s breeches, and sedges in the genus Carex all have seeds with an attached elaiosome—a fleshy structure rich in lipids and proteins that attract ants, which carry off the seeds to eat the elaiosome, and in the process, act as seed dispersal agents.

According to MPF Technical Advisor Dr. James Trager, an entomologist specializing in ants, the ant genera Aphaenogaster and Formica are largely responsible for carrying off seeds with elaiosomes to nests, where members of ant colonies feed on the eliaosomes.

"Elaiosomes occur on seeds of thousands of plant species worldwide,” said Trager. 

“There are numerous ant nests in every square meter of upland habitats around these parts, ranging from forests to prairies, though fewer in the driest and wettest. Due to the proximity of appropriate ants' nests and the attractive scent of the elaiosomes, the plants usually don't have much difficulty getting their seeds dispersed, and they don't usually travel very far. However, I have also seen a yellowjacket buzz in and carry off a seed, and these larger winged critters likely carry any seeds they gather farther.”

As Trager has pointed out, “seeds don't benefit from dispersal too far away from the parent plants, since conditions could be unsuitable at a greater distance away. But what dispersal does is get the seeds out of possible root zone competition with their parents.” In addition, dispersal can deposit seeds at the edge of an existing population of the same species, facilitating cross-pollination with more distant populations, reducing inbreeding.

Learn more about elaiosomes by watching a short video produced by James Faupel, while serving as supervisor of ecological restoration at Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, a Grow Native! professional member. Click on the photo above for the video link.

Photo of an ant with a bloodroot seed and attached eliaosome used with permission by Bill Duncan.