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Local Wild Ones to host annual Native Plant Sale May 5

The Northern Kane County Wild Ones will host its sixth annual native plant sale from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 5, at the Hawthorne Hill Nature Center, 28 Brookside Drive in Elgin. Come early for the best selection!

Customers can choose from a selection of 115 different species of native forbs, sedges and grasses, some in pints and some in plugs.

Native plants refer to hardy perennials, trees and shrubs that are indigenous to northern Illinois. They differ from ornamental plants, trees and shrubs because they developed in the Midwest 12,000 years ago after the last Ice Age.

They are particularly hardy because they developed to withstand our very changeable weather with often hot, dry summers and cold, windy winters as well as periods of drought.

Not only do their roots go very deep - sometimes up to 15 feet - they are also the food that much of our native wildlife and insects eat.

Our native birds, whose numbers have dwindled by 65 percent, may eat at your bird feeders, but 95 percent of them need to feed insects to their babies. Most ornamental plants do not attract these insects that are essential to keep our bird population strong. In addition, Monarch butterflies, who have become endangered, lay their eggs only on milkweed plants, a native plant. They too need a variety of native plants on which to feed before they lay their eggs.

The deep root systems of native plants absorb rain, prevent runoff, erosion and flooding. Their deep roots enrich the soil and sequester carbon, which can mitigate global climate change. Once established, native plants do not need watering, pesticides or herbicides. Every native plant supports a community of plants, animals and insects which supports biodiversity and sustainability of the natural world.

Wild Ones is a nonprofit environmental education and advocacy organization that promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities.

Follow the Northern Kane County Wild Ones at www.Facebook.com/NKWildOnes or visit www.northernkanecounty.wildones.org,where you will find information on events as well as the plant list for this native plant sale.

Find six different types of asters at the Northern Kane County Wild Ones' sixth annual native plant sale May 5. Daily Herald File Photo
Feathery False and Smooth Solomon's seals are among the 115 native varieties featured at the Northern Kane County Wild Ones sale May 5. Daily Herald File Photo

Plants at Wild Ones sale

Aster: Aromatic, Heath, New England, Silky, Sky-blue and Smooth Blue

Beardtongue: Foxglove and Smooth

Black-eyed Susan: Showy, Sweet, and brown-eyed Susan

Blazing Star: Cylindrical, Marsh, Prairie, and Rough

Clover: White Prairie and Purple Prairie

Coneflower: Gray-headed, Pale Purple and Purple

Coreopsis: Prairie and Sand

Ferns: Christmas, Goldie's Wood, Lady, Maidenhair, Marginal Wood and Sensitive

Gentian: Bottle and Cream

Goldenrod: Blue-stemmed, Elm-leaved, Showy, and Zig-zag

Indigo: White Wild and Cream Wild

Milkweed: Butterfly, Common, Poke, Prairie, Swamp and Whorled

Mint: Common Mountain and Horse

Sedge: Bicknell's, Brown Fox, Burr, Long-beaked, Penn, Plantain-leaved wood and straight-styled wood sedge

Solomon's Seal: Feathery False and Smooth

Vervain: Blue and Hoary

In addition: Meadow Anemone, White Baneberry, Giant Yellow Hyssop, Nodding Wild Onion, Lead Plant, Big Bluestem, Pussy Toes, Wild Columbine, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Wild Ginger, Side-Oats, Grama, Marsh Marigold, Wild Hyacinth, American Bellflower, Turtlehead, Dutchman's Britches, Shooting Star, Rattlesnake Master, Flowering Spurge, Queen of the Prairie, Wild Geranium, Prairie Smoke, Sneezeweed, Sharp-lobed Hepatica, Prairie Alumroot, Virginia Waterleaf, Blue Flag Iris, Michigan Lily, Cardinal Flower, Great Blue Lobelia, Virginal Bluebells, Wild Bergamot, Wild Quinine, Woodland Phlox, Obedient Plant, May Apple, Jacob's Ladder, Pasqueflower, Wild Petunia, Little Bluestem, Wild Stonecrop, Royal Catchfly, Starry Campion, Fire Pinks, Compass Plant, Prairie Dock, Blue-eyed Grass, Prairie Dropseed, Wood Sage, Early Meadow Rue, Foam Flower, Common Spiderwort, Large-flowered trillium, Bellwort, Common Ironweed, Culver's Root, Heart-leaved Meadow Parsnip, and Golden Alexanders.

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