Native Plant Trust

One last spring ephemeral highlight for the season, and it’s a unique one: jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) is one of the more unusual looking blooms in our woodlands. Its hooded spathe is striped with purple or green, nestled between two leaves featuring three large leaflets. ⁠ ⁠ The actual flowers of jack-in-the-pulpit, which are tiny green or purple blooms, are hidden down inside the spathe. These flowers have a fleeting bloom, but the spathe remains attractive for a longer period of time. These plants also have the talent of switching from male to female flowers, with young plants tending to produce male flowers for a few years, and then switching to female ones. ⁠ ⁠ You can find jack-in-the-pulpit in moist soils, like in bogs, floodplains, forests, marshes, and shores of rivers or lakes, swamps—including our woodlands at Garden in the Woods!⁠ ⁠ Photos: (1) Arisaema triphyllum © Arthur Haines; (2) Arisaema triphyllum © Dan Jaffe

Native Plant Trust has been approved for a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund (CFF), for new windows and building envelope and portico repairs for our two multi-use buildings at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA!⁠ ⁠ “On behalf of Native Plant Trust, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Mass Cultural Council, the Healey-Driscoll administration, and our state representatives. Their collective support for arts, cultural, and environmental organizations makes Massachusetts a great place to live, work, and visit. With this grant, along with matching funds from a generous donor who deeply values Native Plant Trust’s educational mission and support from previous contributors to the project, we are able to complete a six-year capital renewal project focused on the exteriors of these important buildings.”—Tim Johnson, CEO⁠ ⁠ Thanks @MassGovernor for supporting the #CulturalFacilities Fund and @masscultural ! Your capital investment makes our state stronger.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Visitors at Garden in the Woods by @wildlinks

The cisterns have arrived at Nasami Farm☔️🌱 These cisterns—two 1,550-gallon receptacles for holding rainwater—will support the propagation of plants at Nasami, our native plant nursery in western Massachusetts. This new rainwater catchment system for the greenhouses will reduce pressure on our groundwater. Many of our New England native plants, particularly our acid-loving species in the nursery, need to be watered with rainwater, and cannot tolerate Nasami’s hard, slightly alkaline well water. However, in the summer, rain can be unpredictable, which is where the new cisterns come in. These cisterns will capture and store rainwater, making it easier for our team at Nasami to make sure that these plants stay well-watered throughout the season. #westernmass #nativeplanttrust #rainwatercatchment #newenglandnativeplants Videos: Cisterns being installed at Nasami, Miho Connolly (c) Native Plant Trust

One of the core courses that Native Plant Trust is known for, Wildflowers of New England (In Person) offers a comprehensive introduction not only to the identification of the region's native wildflowers, but also to their ecology, habitats, pollination, and seed dispersal strategies. Led by popular instructor Neela de Zoysa, you will learn basic botanical skills and become familiar with essential field guides and digital tools for identification. Starting this Friday, May 15, and continuing on Thursdays, May 21, May 28, and June 4, 6–9 PM, at Garden in the Woods, our native plant botanic garden in Framingham, MA. You still have time to sign up—use the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Running groundsel (Packera obovata), Uli Lorimer © Native Plant Trust⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #nativeplants #nativenewenglandwildflowers #wildflowers #nativewildflowers #learnaboutwildflowers #newenglandnature #nature #flowers #gardeninthewoods #botany #localbotany #thingstodoinframinghamma #botanyclass #botanycourse #learnbotany #discoverplants #discoverwildflowers #nativeplantclass #nativeplantcourse #inpersonbotanyclass ⁠ ⁠

We are approaching the middle of May, which sadly means we are approaching the end of spring ephemeral blooms for the season. But: there is still time to enjoy the flowers of these native wildflowers, especially those with slightly later bloom times! ⁠ ⁠ Two-leaved toothwort (Cardamine diphylla) is one such of these ephemerals, usually popping up throughout the month. Two-leaved toothwort is an attractive little wildflower, found in moist deciduous forests, floodplains, or rocky slopes. Its cluster of white or light pink four-petaled blossoms rise above its leaves at the end of a tall stem.⁠ ⁠ Photos: (1) Cardamine diphylla with Carex plantaginea © Uli Lorimer; (2) Cardamine diphylla © Dan Jaffe

It’s finally spring in New England🌷🌱🪻🌳 Birds are singing, wildflowers are blooming, and the sun is shining at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA. Stop by for a wander through our trails to see the splendor of spring for yourself! #newenglandgardens #thingstodoboston #springoutdooractivities #massachusettsoutdoors #nativeplanttrust

Happy Mother’s Day! Join us in celebrating at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, where spring ephemerals, dogwoods, and trilliums will be showing off their blooms, or take a walk on your own favorite trails and discover the fleeting beauty of spring.⁠ ⁠ If you haven’t yet gotten Mom a gift this Mother’s Day, give the gift of protecting native plants. Gift memberships from Native Plant Trust come with a wide range of benefits, including discounts on our classes and on purchases in our Garden Shops. Memberships at the $55-and-higher level include complimentary visits to Garden in the Woods, our native plant botanic garden in Framingham, MA. Check out our membership levels and benefits in the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Mother’s Day at Garden in the Woods © Melissa Blackall @wildlinks

Although we’ve highlighted our three New England native trillium species the past few weeks, some of you may have noticed that one species that has long been included in the umbrella of Trillium has not yet been highlighted. ⁠ ⁠ Painted trillium, also known as painted wakerobin, has a distinctive flush of pink-red at the base of its petals, fanning out to white. Painted wakerobin is found throughout New England in moist forests on acidic soils and in deep shade. It is very difficult to propagate ethically—spotting it in the wild is the best way to cherish this species. ⁠ ⁠ Why didn’t we include painted trillium in our spotlight on trillium species? Recent research suggests that painted trillium, along with one other taxa traditionally accepted as a member of Trillium, is more accurately treated as forming the closely related but genetically distinct genus Trillidium, giving painted trillium the scientific name Trillidium undulatum. This separation of genus is not yet widely spread, so many sources will still cite painted trillium under the genus Trillium.⁠ ⁠ Photos: Painted trillium © Uli Lorimer

Native Plant Trust member Mary Brolin was recently enjoying an early spring walk at Garden in the Woods, our native plant botanic garden in Framingham, MA, when she spotted a broad-winged hawk near the Lily Pond and clicked these images. "She was on the stump near the pond," Brolin writes. "If you look closely, in the first photo she has a snake in her talons, likely a water snake from the pond. In the second photo, she had flown a short distance, and you can see the snake hanging down below the branch." ⁠ ⁠ Thanks to Brolin's keen awareness of her surroundings, these images exist as a reminder that gardens of any size provide crucial habitat and contain an intricate web of life, rooted in the plants with which other organisms have evolved. Thank you, Mary, for sharing these.⁠ ⁠ Photos: Broad-winged hawk with snake, Garden in the Woods © Mary Brolin⁠ #hawkwatcher #gardensarehabitat #habitat #plantsarehabitat #nativeplants #nativeplantgarden #birdhabitat #weboflife #ecosystem #lifebeginswithplants #nativeplants #gardeninthewoods #thingstodoinframinghamma #wildlife #birdwatching #plantsarehabitat

There’s a botanic garden just west of Boston showcasing more than 1,000 species of native plants on 45 acres of land. With over a mile of walking trails, Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts is the perfect escape from the city. @wbztv ’s Chris Tanaka explores this hidden oasis that also supports a great cause.

The signs are unmistakable—spring has arrived across the Northeast. Trilliums are emerging, spring peepers are calling, and red-winged blackbirds have returned. When springtime is rich with rain, warmth, and new growth, it sets the stage for abundance across the entire ecosystem for the entire year.⁠ ⁠ The same is true for Native Plant Trust. A strong spring fuels a year of impact—so now is the time to show your support. Make an early gift to our annual fund this spring and help power a year of abundance.⁠ ⁠ Native Plant Trust’s work in 2026 is already well underway:⁠ 🌱 Convening conservation practitioners in every state in New England and coordinating conservation action across the region,⁠ ⁠ 🌱 Training 100+ new Plant Conservation Volunteers to expedite rare plant monitoring and seed collecting,⁠ ⁠ 🌱 Hiring and mentoring the next generation of native plant leaders through our conservation and horticultural internship programs⁠ ⁠ 🌱 Caring for the gardens and wildlands at Garden in the Woods and Nasami Farm as we prepare to welcome tens of thousands of visitors.⁠ ⁠ While we are off to a strong start, we need your help to keep the momentum going.⁠ ⁠ Make a gift today to ensure that we have the resources we need to power our exceptional Conservation and Horticulture programs for the benefit of nature and nature lovers alike. /donor-form/?svcid=tcs&formId=3c5b337b-ad92-4d4c-aa95-908a94e8b7e7&envid=p-THM5ytj27EmyHhlJ8JES-g&zone=usa

In the flurry of Trillium Week at Garden in the Woods—see previous posts or the link below—we pause to honor another woodland harbinger of spring, mayflower or trailing-arbutus (Epigaea repens). New Englanders associate the plant's fragrant, pinkish, bell-shaped flowers and their jasminey scent with the arrival of May. It is also the state flower of Massachusetts. ⁠ ⁠ This past winter ( i.e., the winter of 2025-2026), Nasami Farm Nursery Manager Alexis Doshas fielded a request from the United States Botanic Garden to provide six pots of Epigaea repens for an exhibition in Washington, DC, America's State Flowers: An America250 Celebration, which features the flowers representing all 50 states.⁠ ⁠ Though six pots doesn't sound like much, Doshas says that propagating this fussy member of the heath family is no easy feat: "Like others in this family, Epigaea repens are slow growers, often taking several years to fill a three-inch pot—if we can keep them happy that long. We've learned that they thrive with rainwater, but not well water, and with no fertilizer." ⁠ ⁠ If you are in the nation's capital for America250 festivities, this is the time to stop by the USBG and get a whiff of your home ground. ⁠ ⁠ And if you want to take in our famed trillium collection at Garden in the Woods, our native plant botanic garden in Framingham, MA, get details about our Trillium Week activities through the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Mayflowers packed for shipping from Nasami Farm to the US Botanic Garden earlier this spring, Jane Roy Brown © Native Plant Trust⁠ ⁠