Check in on Cost-Shares
The new year is often a time for new beginnings and making positive changes in our lives. And what better way to do that than by creating a beautiful, thriving native plant habitat in your community? A great way to get started is by looking into the many cost-share programs available that award funding towards native plant installation and maintenance projects. Click the link below to read about how cost-share programs work and where they are available in your area.
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Host Plant Highlight
90% of plant-eating insects use native plants to grow and survive. Without their native host plants, many butterflies and other insects cannot survive. Birds and other wildlife use caterpillars and other insects to feed their young. Over the last few years, we have seen major declines in both insect and bird populations due to a variety of factors, especially habitat loss and fragmentation. Rebuilding habitat with native plants is crucial in providing food for caterpillars, which in turn provide food for baby birds; making native plants the foundation of our food webs.
Big Bluestem
(Andropogon gerardii)
# of Larval species- 11

Grasses are often underappreciated for their value to pollinators and other insects. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) serves as a host plant for 11 species of larval insects, including the Delaware Skipper. The adult skippers are small in size, with a wingspan of only one inch. The caterpillars are white with a blue-green tinge, providing camouflage when they feed on the grass. Big bluestem warm season grass is also known as “turkey foot,” which refers to the shape of the seed head.
Delaware Skipper Butterfly Adult
(Anatrytone logan)
Big bluestem flowers
A beautiful array of colors on Big bluestem leafblades
"Turkey foot" flower heads

Our Nursery is Closed for the Season

Thank you for coming out during our sale dates this year! If you are interested in plants wholesale please email our greenhouse manager for prices and stock details.
Jill@naturalshore.com
For more information visit:
Non-native Species of the Month
Japanese Barberry
(Berberis thunbergii)

Japanese Barberry is a woody perennial plant on Minnesota’s Prohibited-Control weed list and is a garden escapee. This plant has a mounded form with long branches that sport small ovate leaves. In the winter, Japanese Barberry can be easily identified by its bright red fruits and spines at each branchlet. It invades many different types of habitats, growing in full sun to shade and all types of soil conditions. Control should focus on preventing fruit formation as birds will spread the seeds. Methods include cutting and treating stumps, hand pulling smaller plants, and foliar herbicide applications for larger infestations. 
Native Plant of the Month-
Pale Purple Coneflower
(Echinacea pallida)

Pale Purple Coneflower has a deep taproot and coarse, rough hairs on the stout stems and leaves. Flowers have thin, drooping pale pink petals surrounding reddish brown disk flowers. The flowers form slightly earlier in the season than the related Purple Coneflower. Pale Purple Coneflower is found in dry and mesic prairies, roadsides and open woods. It prefers full sun in sandy to clay-textured soil that is well-drained. The flowers attract butterflies and many types of bees, and the seeds provide a food source for gold finches and chickadees in the winter season. 
Restoration Tip of the Month
Are you holding onto any native plant seeds? Now is the ideal moment to plant them using the method of winter sowing. This technique involves scattering the seeds on top of snow, allowing them to undergo the natural process of stratification. Many native plant seeds require a period of cold temperatures in order to sprout. Simply distribute them in a bare patch of land or place them in a container filled with soil and place it in an area where it will be exposed to snow.
Natural Shore Technologies, Inc. | www.naturalshore.com