This year’s Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants conference is being held on Saturday, February 26th and runs 9:30 AM to 4 PM. I attended the conference last year and found it to have very valuable information and I plan on attending again. The Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference promotes the inclusion of native plants in our landscaping to benefit pollinators and songbirds, save water, and restore the beauty and health of nature in the places we live, work and play.
It will be virtual (online) again. They will have two
tracks, one for those new to using native plants, the other for those who
already have some knowledge of Colorado native plants, but you can attend
either. The conference will likely include an online “exhibit hall” where you
can see all the conference partners, supporters and vendors, get informative
handouts and do an online chat with them during the conference. The Landscaping
with Colorado Native Plants Conference is brought to you by a coalition of
partner organizations: Butterfly Pavilion, Colorado State University Department
of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Colorado State University
Extension, Colorado Native Plant Master Program®, Colorado Native Plant
Society, Denver Botanic Gardens, Wild Ones Front Range Chapter, High Plains
Environmental Center and Susan J Tweit, author. Here are some of this year’s
titles of talks and workshops:
- Well-Behaved Prairie Plants for Your Home Garden
- Native Plant Production Panel
- Watering Native Plants, how low can you go?
- Ecosystem Function and Landscape Aesthetics
- Profile of a Successful Partnership: Loveland’s Native Plant Gardens at River’s Edge Natural Area
- No Plant is an Island: Experimental Insights into Growing Castilleja spp. in Colorado Gardens
- The Importance Of Native Plants In Diets Of Colorado Birds
The speakers and presenters include some well-known names
nationally and locally. For more information and registration see: https://pheedloop.com/LWCNPConference/site/
While this organization recommends the use of straight species and local ecotypes wherever possible, they support the use of varieties and cultivars of native species as long as their breeding doesn’t interfere with their ability to function in nature and maintain key relationships with pollinators and other lives.