Webinar: Beauty and Biodiversity at Cornell’s Mundy Wildflower Garden

Please join Krissy Boys for a comprehensive virtual field trip of four discreet sustainable landscapes within the Mundy Wildflower Garden at the Cornell Botanic Gardens. This virtual field trip includes:

• The specialist bee pollinator garden
• The flood plain forest
• The deer exclosure
• The native lawn
• The stream bank restoration

The presentation will cover the principles of plant conservation and plant propagation, habitat gardening in full sun and in deep shade over limestone, as well as gravel gardening at the stream bank restoration site.

We can easily and quickly create native plant displays that mature into prospering plant communities, filled with color, texture, and movement for us, while also providing habitat for wildlife. There are species in our midst that depend exclusively on common plants for their survival. The ingredients for success in gardening with them are attainable, and available to all, when we learn to read the landscape, apply what we learn, while keeping a few essential steps in mind as we go.
Think positively and enjoy the process. Also make sure to use a systematic approach with these essential steps: source local gravel, reference a local plant community, obtain permission to collect seeds, and create a small-scale propagation area in your home or business.

Read more about the Cornell restoration project in the ELA Newsletter article: Native Plants Shine in Streambank Restoration.

Krissy Boys has been a professional gardener for nearly 31 years. Her gardening career began with native plants at the Brandywine Conservancy and Brandywine River Museum in Chads Ford, PA.  F.M. Mooberry, the founder of the Brandywine Garden and of the Millersville Plant Conference, was Krissy’s supervisor and mentor in native plant gardening. Krissy has been managing the Mundy Wildflower Garden at Cornell Botanic Gardens for 21 years. From 1992 -1999 Krissy looked after the Comstock Knoll Rhododendron Collection, the Pounder Heritage Vegetable Crops and the Poisonous Plants Garden. She volunteered as a land steward for the Finger Lakes Land Trust from 1992-2011 and has been a steering committee member of the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society since 1998.