Montreat Native Plant Sale returns from two-year hiatus
Music, food and educational programs will celebrate Arbor Day
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
April 22, 2022
The Montreat Native Plant Sale will return from a two-year hiatus, April 23, with live music, food trucks and family-friendly activities. Photo by Fred McCormick
An annual tradition celebrating the lush vegetation that has long flourished in the region’s mountains and valleys is coming back to Montreat, beginning at 9 a.m., Saturday, April 23.
The Montreat Native Plant Sale & Arbor Day Celebration, hosted by the Montreat Landcare Committee, will feature live music, a food truck and multiple family-friendly activities, as it returns to Moore Center at Lake Susan for the first time since 2019.
This year’s theme will focus on pollinators and their host plans, specifically Monarch butterflies and milkweed. More than a dozen nurseries, vendors and exhibitors are set to participate in the event.
Experts will be on hand to provide planting and gardening advice, while children will be entertained at the Montreat College "Be a Tree" hands on activity table, as well as the "Be a Butterfly" photo opportunity.
The Native Plant Sale will open with an Arbor Day proclamation, read by Montreat Mayor Tim Helms, who will also be presented with a Tree City U.S.A. recognition for the town. Helms will also read a Mayor’s Monarch Pledge proclamation to kick off the event.
Live performances of mountain music will take place throughout the day, while breakfast and lunch will be available through the Cecilia’s Kitchen food truck. Additional presentations include a program on the mason bee by Spriggly’s Beescaping, followed by a question and answers session that focuses on native pollinators. Milkweed Meadows Farm will discuss the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly, and its remarkable migration from N.C. to Mexico.
Riverlink will hold a WaterRICH Landscape and Gardening for Stormwater Management presentation, which will focus on creating rain gardens using vegetation available at the plant sale. Samantha Bowers, of the American Chestnut Foundation, will provide information about the catastrophic loss of American Chestnut trees, and regional efforts to restore them. The hosting Montreat Landcare Committee will feature an exhibit highlighting preferred native plants and invasive species that should be avoided.
Vendors will include Ten Thousand Villages, Appalachian Creek Nursery, A Quartzy Life, High Country Nursery and more.
The Montreat Native Plant Sale & Arbor Day Celebration ends at 3 p.m., but a Salamander Night Hike, limited to 15 participants, will begin at 9 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public, but will feature a wide variety of local landscaping items for sale.
The Montreat Landcare Committee is a community-based group of volunteers who partner with other organizations to work on conservation projects throughout the town. The committee’s initiatives have included wildfire safety, hemlock restoration and Galax protection.
The Montreat Native Plant Sale & Arbor Day Celebration was held annually beginning in 2012, but was canceled in 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event features nurseries who offer a wide variety of native and compatible plants for homes and gardens, while educating participants about the dangers invasive species pose to the local ecosystem.
For more information the Montreat Native Plant Sale, visit montreatlandcare.org.