The Northern Neck Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society (NNVNPS) is delighted to welcome member Pat Lust as our in-person speaker for our, Thursday, April 20th meeting at the Wicomico Parish Church, 5191 Jessie Ball DuPont Memorial Hwy (Route 200) in Wicomico Church. Pat will present an in-depth program on a wide variety of techniques for propagating plants. Want to increase your native plantings with minimal cost or add diversity to your garden? This is the program for you. A hands-on workshop will follow the program.
Bring a brown bag lunch and join us at noon for a brief social period before Pat’s program at 12:30. The program will also include a brief introduction to the April Plant of the Month, the beautiful Carolina Jessamine.
After the in-depth presentation, Pat will lead a small hands-on workshop for up to 12 attendees. We still have a couple of spaces available although we ask that you use your new skills to propagate a few plants for our Fall Plant Sale. Email me at bwash99@verizon.net if you would like to attend the workshop or need more information.
Pat Lust, retired Longwood University faculty member and long-time Master Gardener, is currently spending a lot of time growing an amazing diversity of native plants and lecturing throughout the state about them. Her backyard nursery focuses mostly on native perennials and shrubs, but she propagates and grows an amazingly diverse palette of plants. Pat always brings dozens of unusual and highly desired plants to our Annual Fall Plant Sale that always excite attendees. “If you get to know Pat, you will probably be adopting or propagating many more native plants for your own garden, said Betsy Washington, President of NNVNPS. “And that, my friends, is an understatement!”
In 2001, Ms. Lust joined the Virginia Master Gardeners and pursued her special interests in native plants and plant propagation. She currently serves as the vice president for education for the Goochland/Powhatan Master Gardeners. Under her leadership, the
Master Gardeners group has developed a speakers’ bureau and a popular community-oriented series of courses entitled Gardening 101, many of which Pat teaches. Her Propagation Workshops are highly sought after, and we are most fortunate to have Pat sharing her expertise with members of our chapter.
Patricia Lust is a native of Ohio farm country and holds degrees in music from Heidelberg University, New England Conservatory of Music, and Indiana University. She spent her career mostly as a singer and as a music teacher, first in several public schools then in universities in New Hampshire and Indiana before coming to Longwood University in Virginia. She spent 37 years on the music faculty at Longwood and in several different administrative positions before retiring in 2016.
April Plant of the Month, Carolina Jessamine