By Chris Cardwell
Photo credit: Deep Roots
Native Plants at Noon Returns to Anita Gorman Discovery Center
The original home stadium of Native Plants at Noon welcomes our two enthusiastic hosts, Alix Daniel and Cydney Ross, for June 15th’s Native Plants at Noon. Tour the diverse gardens and see the incredible handiwork of MDC’s landscape technician team. Enjoy the West meadow in another season of its establishment, see how quickly the towering silphium and compass plant of the Primrose Prairie has shot up, and hear all about the latest new planting areas to keep an eye on in the first year of establishment. Also, June is the prime season for the native edibles that nourish diverse wildlife, such as the Serviceberries and Wild Strawberries. Luck might even share some special migratory visitors, or any of the numerous animal species that call the Discovery Center home, like the behemoth Red-Eared Sliders of the South Pond! This edition of Native Plants at Noon is sure to be a good one, so tune in on June 15th at noon to welcome us back to where it all started!
June Lunch and Learn at Loose Park – The Crown Jewel of KC Parks
The 75-acre Jacob L. Loose Park is one of Kansas City’s most popular, beautiful, and historical – a destination that delights hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, in all seasons. And while it’s renowned as a famous site of the Battle of Westport during the Civil War, it also boasts one of the city’s best and most highly visible examples of successful native landscaping projects. Public demonstration gardens are an excellent way to highlight native landscape design, and to spark people’s imaginations about what can be possible in their own native plant endeavors. The Deep Roots native plant garden at Loose Park is the product of an impressive collaboration of partners and volunteers that began in 2015 and Eric Tschanz, Director Emeritus of Powell Gardens, will take us on an in-depth tour of these plantings in the peak of their summer glory. Though they exhibit a wide range of species and growing conditions, the diversity of the plant palates in these sites maintains the prowess and structure of a formal botanical landscape. Join us on June 1 at noon, to be inspired and impressed.
