MDC partners with Deep Roots KC for free Native Plants at Noon programs in Kansas City

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News from the region
Kansas City
Published Date
01/13/2021
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Kansas City, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is partnering with the Deep Roots KC organization to promote the use of native plants in home and business landscaping. During 2021, Deep Roots will host Native Plants at Noon, a series of free virtual educational tours of the native plant gardens at MDC’s Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center in Kansas City. The webinar tours will be held live on Zoom and Facebook at noon on the third Thursday of each month.

The first Native Plants at Noon webinar will be at noon on Thursday, Jan. 21. Registration is required. To register, visit https://short.mdc.mo.gov/ZEF.

These sessions will feature a live look at native plants used in landscaping as the gardens change through the seasons. Leading the sessions will be Alix Daniel and Cydney Ross, MDC native landscape specialists, who lead the care of the Discovery Center native plant gardens. They will provide helpful tips for what wildflowers and prairie grasses will meet a gardener’s goals. Native plants are hardy to western Missouri’s soil, sunlight, and moisture conditions. But some species need specific care or seasonal trimming.

Native plants add beauty to landscape plantings. They also host beneficial insects, such as butterflies, and various insects that are food sources for songbirds. Insects adapted to native plants are especially important when nesting adult pairs are carrying food to young birds.

Deep Roots KC is a collective impact organization working with partners to increase native plant landscapes on both large and small scales. The organization also has partnered with MDC to plant and maintain native wildflowers and grasses in a demonstration landscape garden at the southwest corner of the Discovery Center campus. For more information on Deep Roots KC, visit https://deeproots.org/.

Deep Roots was founded by The Westport Garden Club, a 70-year-old organization with a long history of supporting conservation. The club has partnered with many stalwart Kansas City organizations including the Linda Hall Library, Powell Gardens, and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. For more information on the club, visit https://thewestportgardenclub.org/.

MDC’s Gorman Discovery Center is at 4750 Troost Ave., east of the Country Club Plaza. Discovery Center hosts educational conservation programs for all ages and interests throughout the year. For more information, visit https://short.mdc.mo.gov/Z6s.