WANTED: DEAD NOT ALIVE Invasive Plant Exhibit Wins Educational Excellence Award

WANTED: DEAD NOT ALIVE received an Educational Excellence award at the Sharon Garden Club's September Garden Medley on September 9, 2017. The event featured a Small Standard Flower Show sanctioned by the National Garden Clubs, a professional horticulturist-guided garden tour, live music, artists at work, and lunch under the shade of grand old trees.

WANTED: DEAD NOT ALIVE exhibit featured live potted exotic invasive plants and illustrated some of the environmental damage they cause. Brenda Minihan and Ellen Schoenfeld-Beeks of Sharon, and Carol Lundeen of Easton created the exhibit in western style in a horse stall of an 1850's barn on Bullard Street in Sharon. The trio played roles as invasive plant sheriffs, engaging visitors in conversation and offering invasive plant checklists, images, and ideas for native plant alternatives.

Exotic invasive plants have no natural predators and diseases that would naturally control their spread. Some invasive plants have escaped from our home gardens and public plantings into natural areas and cause profound environmental and economic damage. Massachusetts has developed a list of problematic plants. Some are even illegal to sell, including Norway maple, Japanese maple, burning bush, all hollow-stemmed honeysuckles, garlic mustard, oriental bittersweet, and Japanese knotweed.

The exhibit also included a “Talking Tree,” a young pin oak tree that posed the question, “When I turn one hundred years old, what do you hope I will say?” Visitors then wrote their answers on a card and tied their card to the tree with yarn. The tree will be planted at Sharon’s Unitarian Universalist Church.

For more information, contact the Sharon Garden Club or Carol Lundeen at Garden-911.com.