May 23, 2023 Monthly Program of the Maryland Native Plant Society www.mdflora.org

Heather McCargo will discuss the fascinating life cycles of some New England native plants and describe how we can change our landscape practices to support wild plant reproduction, pollinators, and wildlife. She will demonstrate simple outdoor seed sowing methods to help increase native plant populations. Growing native plants from seed is a great way to protect the genetic diversity of our native flora and to produce an abundance of plants inexpensively. Be part of a grassroots movement to sow native seeds!

Heather founded Wild Seed Project in 2014 and served as Executive Director from 2014 to 2021. She now focuses her work on expanding our native seed collection and propagation center.

Heather is an educator with 30 years’ experience in plant propagation, landscape design, horticulture, and conservation. A former head plant propagator at the New England Wild Flower Society’s (now Native Plant Trust) Garden in the Woods during the 1990s, Heather has also worked at several landscape architecture/planning firms specializing in ecological design, and has contributed to research projects with USAID, the National Gardening Association, and MOFGA. She has lectured nationally and is widely published in journals and magazines such as Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s “Growing from Seed,” Horticulture, American Nurseryman, Ecological Landscape Alliance, and many others. Heather designed the master plan for the medicinal gardens at Avena Botanicals in Rockport and was the creator of the Bay School Agricultural Arts program in Blue Hill. Heather has a BA in plant ecology from Hampshire College and an MA from the Conway School of Landscape Design.

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MNPS Meeting Recorded May 23, 2023