At our October meeting, we were delighted to welcome two leaders of the LONG ISLAND NATIVE PLANT INITIATIVE (LINPI), Co-President Colleen Doyle and Executive Director Mary Pigliacelli, who spoke to us on the topic “Winter Gardening with Native Plants: Collect, Save and Sow.”

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This is, of course a very relevant and timely topic, and Colleen and Mary presented their extensive knowledge and advice with passion and enthusiasm, which engaged the audience and led to many questions, comments and further suggestions from the group.

Colleen is a garden designer and she spoke about how winter is the best time for planning and dreaming about our own gardens. We can clearly see the “bones” of the garden and note bare spots which need something new. She asked that we think about who we invite into our gardens - birds, insects? - and how we can provide for them.

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We learned about how LINPI goes about fulfilling their mission of Preserving Biodiversity on Long Island by determining local “ecotypes” (plants genetically adapted to the region), ethically collecting and propagating their seeds, planting and genetically strengthening  the species plants, and then sharing the seeds and plants through sales and grants.

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Mary guided us through the specifics of winter sowing and spring planting of natives using containers such as milk jugs, and she was pleased to see that we had a collection of empty milk jugs for our members to do exactly that!

We also let our speakers know about our Monarch Garden, which is one of the projects that they encourage gardeners to undertake.

They concluded with a list of seeds that can be obtained from LINPI, and ways to become involved with their organization.

It was very satisfying to realize how closely our LIHS interests and efforts align with those of LINPI and other local environmental organizations!