In partnership with the City of Calgary, we’re expanding our Grow with Us program to include native plant plug giveaways starting this August. Thank you to the City and to our partner, the Alberta Native Plant Rescue Foundation (ANPRF), who this wouldn’t be possible without. Read on to find out more about native plants, the ANPRF, and how you can sign up to get free native plant plugs.
Why Native Plants?
Native plants are not only beautiful and great for native pollinators and all our other native wildlife – they’re also highly drought tolerant. Since Alberta often has long stretches without much precipitation, and these plants evolved alongside its dry climate, they have ways of making it through long dry periods that other, non-native species don’t have. A great example is long roots that can tap into water reserves deep below the ground’s surface.
This means that once native plants are established, whether in their native grasslands or in your garden, they’re extremely resilient. Perennial native plants can not only weather our hot and dry summer conditions; they make it through our winters to pop back up in spring to show off beautiful foliage and flowers each year. I’m sure many of the gardeners reading this have lost a perennial or two (or more, with some of the particularly frosty winters we’ve had here) to the cold Southern Alberta climate. While native species aren’t totally immune to the effects of the cold, their deep roots are often safe from the deep freeze, and you’ll see them coming back strong in spring after some of our colder winters.
Looking For Free Native Plant Plugs?
Sign up for our Grow with Us mailing list at http://friendsoffishcreek.org/gwu. We’ll email you letting you know when we’re running giveaways and provide a registration link for each giveaway.
When you register for a giveaway, we’ll ask you to complete a short survey about your experience with native plant gardening and why you’re interested in getting free native plants. We’ll be in touch later in the year with a follow-up survey.
Show up, grab your plugs, and get them into your garden! Once you’ve claimed your plugs, you’ll need to wait until our next round of giveaways in 2027 to participate again. If you’re interested in sourcing more plugs or mature plants than what were giving away, you can follow our partner, the Alberta Native Plant Rescue Foundation and sign up for their email list to go out to a plant rescue! Follow @albertanativeplantrescue on Instagram for more information.
