georgia native plant society / STONE MOUNTAIN PROPAGATION PROJECT
2019 giving while living regional grant: $2,100
Georgia Native Plant Society – Stone Mountain Propagation Project (SMPP) will use Woodard & Curran Foundation’s $2,100 grant to design and construct a larger greenhouse to accommodate additional growing tables, a misting bench to root cuttings, with electricity, running water, and climate control options. The new greenhouse will replace the existing, small (10’x10’) cold frame, which while being useful for starting seeds in the winter months, lacks many features that would allow for the production of more plants.
Nursery manager Matt Shaw teaches volunteers how to thin seedlings for maximum growth and production specific to each species.
SMPP strives to produce plants that are truly native to Georgia. Most plants are grown from seed or cuttings that are collected from Society members’ personal gardens or with permission from other local natural sources, including Stone Mountain Park. The remaining plants are dug by special permission from rescue sites slated for development.
The plants cultivated in the new greenhouse will serve innumerable functions: at plant sales that enable people to purchase natives and learn all about them; at educational classes where people will learn how to propagate; at restoration sites where GNPS/SMPP will put natives back in nature in place of invasive exotics.
More importantly, the greenhouse will solidify the Stone Mountain Propagation Project as the core of Georgia’s plant propagation efforts statewide, serving as a model for other Georgia Native Plant Society chapters around the state.
Thank you to Raina Singleton and Will Medlin, from Woodard & Curran, Inc.’s Duluth, GA, office, who nominated Georgia Native Plant Society/Stone Mountain Propagation Project for a Foundation Giving While Living Regional Grant.