COLUMBIA, Mo. —The Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence program has inducted the Taylor Twins Memorial Garden, located at 201 West Main Street in the Uptown district of Jackson, Missouri, next to the historic Frizel-Welling House.
Along with four more newly inducted sites, this garden joins 20 other sites in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Illinois that have been recognized by the program since it launched in 2021.
The garden provides an example of the excellent use of native plants in a garden landscape.
Two pathways — one of bark mulch, the other flagstone — represent Lucille and Louise Taylor, the sisters the garden is named for who grew up in Jackson and were very different, but always connected.
The pathways wind down the length of the garden along which benches are placed for visitors to sit and enjoy the space, where they will see a variety of native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs, trees, vines, and sedges, as well as the wildlife attracted by them.
“The Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence program features plantings of native plants in designed, well-maintained gardens and in other native landscape plantings in the lower Midwest,” said Carol Davit, executive director of the Missouri Prairie Foundation and its Grow Native! program. “We are pleased to showcase these outstanding native gardens to inspire greater use of native plants, which provide many benefits to wildlife and people.”
The Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence are located in a variety of settings. All are open to the public (many are free; some charge an admission fee), consist of at least 90% native plants, and are at least three years old with an established maintenance schedule.
Grow Native! plans to induct additional sites as Gardens of Excellence each year. Explore all 25 Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence, and nominate a native garden or landscape in the lower Midwest for inclusion in the program, here: https://grownative.org/learn/gardens-of-excellence/
Grow Native! is the 23-year-old native plant marketing and education program of the Missouri Prairie Foundation, a 57-year-old prairie conservation organization and nationally accredited land trust. To learn more, visit www.moprairie.org or www.grownative.org, or call 888-843-6739.