Friends of Myles Standish State Forest
Pine Barrens Community Initiative Native Plant Propagation Program
The Friends of Myles Standish State Forest Pine Barrens Community Initiative (PBCI) Committee has partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and Morrison's Home and Garden, Inc. to provide nursery stock propagated from seeds collected from local native plants. By purchasing these plants you are supporting conservation of the Myles Standish State Forest and the globally rare southeastern Massachusetts pine barrens. When your plants become established, you will provide food for native pollinators and wildlife right in your own backyard.
Morrison's Home and Garden
90 Long Pond Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
(508) 746-0970
Our plants are propagated by volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the region's pine barrens. The cost of the planting materials is covered by the FMSSF, a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization, through the donations of FMSSF members. Please consider joining the FMSSF or donating to help the PBCI.
List of FMSSF native plants that were available in summer 2012 for purchase at Morrison's Home and Garden. (Stock is not yet available for 2013.)
Yellow wild indigo
Baptisia tinctoria
Sandy, dry spots, full sun. Poor soil is OK. Produces round "balloons" of yellow flowers about 3 ft in diameter at the start of summer. Nice foliage and thick bluish stems for the rest of the season. A bright, vivacious plant. In winter it turns all black--both the stems and rattling fruit and finally breaks off and tumbles around. A common plant in Plymouth area.
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1443/1664
Canadian rockrose or longbranch frostweed
Helianthemum canadense (or Crocanthemum canadense)
A small plant (about 1 ft tall) of sunny, sandy or rocky, rather dry habitats; grows in Myles Standish SF and beyond in SE Massachusetts. Bright yellow flowers at the start of summer and then small flowers that never open, pollinate themselves, and produce viable seed. (Such flowers are called cleistogamous. They also occur in many violets.)
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1418/7093
Short-toothed mountain mint
Pycnanthemum muticum
A tall mint (3-4 ft) with fragrant foliage that produces heads of small white flowers turning gray in fruit. Grows in frost pockets in Myles Standish SF. Prefers open, sunny, situations and sandy soil. Rather drought tolerant.
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1462/13966
Slender-leaved mountain mint
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium
A delicate plant with narrow leaves and flat heads of white flowers. Drought tolerant. Sandy soil is fine. In Myles Standish SF infrequently grows at mowed roadsides. You can sometimes also spot this plant on mowed slopes along highways.
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1462/13795
Largeleaf aster
Eurybia macrophylla (or Aster macrophyllus)
A good groundcover in half-shade under big trees. Over the years will produce a lush low patch of showy leaves with only a few tall flowering plants here and there. Flowers are white or bluish-white, appearing in August/September.
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1394/11844
Virgin's bower
Clematis virginiana
A native herbaceous vine that produces white flowers at the end of the summer and then showy dry fruit. Need medium moisture and average garden soil. Will look graceful on a fence.
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1515/13037
Swamp milkweed
Asclepias incarnata ssp. pulchra
A milkweed of moist sunny places, preferrably pond shores and banks of streams, but will live in the garden with some watering.
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1392/10103
Climbing hempvine
Mikania scandens
A native herbaceous vine that prefers a wetland, pond shore, or river bank. Can grow right in water. May cover a large unsightly spot with a multitude of neatly cut leaves and foamy white flowers (flowering in August/September).
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1394/12402
Atlantic Joe-Pye-weed
Eupatorium dubium
A rather tall perennial, though not as tall as some other Joe-Pye-weeds. Produces pink flower heads at the end of summer. Prefers moist or even wet habitat, but will grow in an average garden situation with some watering.
http://www.salicicola.com/photos/gallery/view/1394/12092
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