New Germany State Park, Western Maryland

When:  Saturday May 12, 2018,  10:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Location: New Germany State Park, Garrett County, Maryland

Discover the important connection between native plants, people, and wildlife at the fifth annual Mountain Maryland Native Plant Festival!

A large variety of plants native to the mid-Atlantic for sale all day! (Please contact vendors directly if you wish to pre-order for pick-up at the event. Purchases made the day of the event are cash or check only.)

Primary Sponsors:

1. Evergreen Heritage Center, Mount Savage, MD, www.evergreenheritagecenter.org

1. Go Native Tree Farm, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, www.gonativetrees.com

1. Wood Thrush Native Plant Nursery, Floyd, Virginia, www.woodthrushnatives.com

Scheduled programs & activities highlight native plants & biodiversity!

Educational programs geared for adults & teens:

• 10:30 to 11:30 am - Nasty Natives? No! (Fact-checking Common Misconceptions about Native Plants) - Candy DeBerry, Professor of Biology, Washington & Jefferson College
• 12:00 to 1:00 pm - Species Complexity: Species, Subspecies, Variants, Eco-types, and Phenotypes - Ian Caton, Owner/Operator, Wood Thrush Native Plant Nursery
• 1:30 to 2:30 pm - Saving the Planet, One Plant at a Time: How a community’s renewed love of native plants can contribute to large-scale biodiversity conservation - Iara Lacher, Landscape Ecologist, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Family-friendly activities:

• 10:00 to 11:00 am - Birds & Blooms (discover birds & wildflowers during this easy walk)
• 2:00 to 3:00 pm - Let’s Pull Together (pull garlic mustard to save an endangered butterfly)
• All day! - Scavenger Hunt (find native plants with special features and win a prize)

Local experts answer questions on native plants & other conservation topics!

• Engage Mountain Maryland - www.engagemmd.org
• Evergreen Heritage Center - www.evergreenheritagecenter.org
• Friends of New Germany State Park –  www.facebook.com/FriendsofNewGermanystatepark
• Frostburg Grows - www.frostburggrows.com
• Maryland Conservation Corps -http://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/mcc.aspx
• Maryland Native Plant Society - www.mdflora.org
• Sierra Club Maryland Chapter - www.sierraclub.org/maryland
• University of Maryland Extension, Garrett County Master Gardeners - www.extension.umd.edu/garrett-county/home-gardening

To get a better idea of why this continues to be such a nice event, view this video created at last year’s festival by our friends at Engage Mountain Maryland:

https://youtu.be/eFkj4lahKcw

New Germany State Park and the Western Mountains Chapter of MNPS are co-sponsoring this FREE event. More details to follow!

Directions: From I-68 take Exit 22 and follow signs for New Germany State Park. Turn left into the park onto McAndrews Hill Road. Signs will direct you to parking for this special event.