The Northern Neck Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society (NNVNPS) is opening its 2022 public program series with a public virtual meeting to be held on Thursday, March 17th at 1:00 pm in the comfort of your own home.
The Chapter’s Zoom presentation is entitled “Great Natives for Tough Sites: Using Native Plant Communities as a Guide for Better Designs” and presented by Janet Davis (photos above), owner of Hill House Farm and Nursery, a leader in raising native plants of the mid-Atlantic. Janet pulls from her decades of experience growing native plants and working with diverse customers along with a range of landscapes conditions to help gardeners better analyze and understand native plant options for tough sites, including helpful information like cultivation, soil and pH requirements, natural range, and hardiness. Her talk will help us all to choose appropriate native plants for challenging sites like dry shade, waterlogged areas, or clay and compacted soils and how this kind of planting ultimately helps restore native habitats and enhance biodiversity. Be inspired as Janet shares her experience to see your own efforts at restoring natural ecosystems whether in your backyard, a public garden or in urban or commercial projects.
Janet is an outstanding plantswoman, landscape designer, plant grower, nursery owner and just a good ole gardener. Even her avid passion of hiking leads her to discovering the various plant communities of our region while understanding the great diversity of Virginia’s native flora. This “outdoor” time fostered her passion for Virginia native plants so about 25 years ago, she started incorporating native plants into her clients’ gardens and landscapes, practicing what she now calls ‘eco-horticulture’. “I have known and worked with Janet for years and her knowledge and passion for native plants always stands out. Her skill in growing a diversity of stellar native plants is truly admirable”, said Betsy Washington, botanist and NNVNPS Board member. “Her talk should be most worthwhile to any lover of plants.”
In 2006, finding a lack of native plant stock, she opened a native plant nursery business, Hill House Farm & Nursery, which grows and sells US native plants with an emphasis on natives and select native cultivars from the Mid-Atlantic region. She raises upwards of 500 species of natives that she uses and sells throughout the region http://hillhousenativeplants.com . Known as the “cheerleader” for native plants, Janet divides her time between her vocation and her avocation—raising both native plants and her 16-year-old daughter, Olivia. She lives with her husband and daughter--plus their 2 dogs and pet Corn snake--in bucolic Rappahannock County, VA, just east of Shenandoah National Park.
The presentation will also include the Chapter’s March Plant of the Month by NN VNPS Board member Betsy Washington which for March is the lovely Yellow or American Trout Lily, Erythronium americanum.