DECEMBER 14: Coastkeeper Garden and Native Sons Nursery to Host Free Pollinator Plant Give Away

• Community members are invited to pick up one FREE pollinator plant and spend time touring the Garden
• Pollinators are on the decline, but Orange County residents can help by planting food-source plants pollinators love
• Coastkeeper Garden is a designated pollinator safe haven
• Garden Director Marianne Hugo is available to discuss how families can become more pollinator-friendly

WHAT:

Orange County Coastkeeper Garden and Native Sons Nursery are partnering to help support the declining population of local beneficial insects. Orange County residents can greatly assist by planting food source plants to ensure local pollinators are well-fed, while creating beautiful additions to their garden. At the Coastkeeper Garden Pollinator Plant Give Away, each person or family will receive one FREE 4-inch container pollinator plant, while supplies last. The featured plants include two varieties of sage: Salvia greggii – ‘Smoking Lavender’ and ‘La Luna’ as well as a native shrub, Verbena lilacina – ‘De la Mina.’

WHY:

Pollinators are some of nature’s hardest workers, yet numbers have been declining in recent years due to excessive use of pesticides and urbanization. The Coastkeeper Garden in the City of Orange serves as a model on what being “pollinator-safe” looks like: pesticide-free maintenance, California native plants and “bee hotels.” Garden Director Marianne Hugo has made it her mission to create an Orange County where all pollinators have a home and access to essential food sources. Participants can tour the Garden to learn more about pollinator plants.

WHEN: Saturday, December 14, 2019, at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: Coastkeeper Garden – 8520 E. Santiago Canyon Road. Orange, CA, 92869.

WHO/INTERVIEWS:

• Marianne Hugo, Coastkeeper Garden Director

VISUALS:

• Bees, butterflies, birds and more latching on to colorful flowers
• An expansive garden filled with drought-tolerant, pollinator plants
• PHOTOS

LINKS:

• Coastkeeper Garden

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COASTKEEPER GARDEN: The Coastkeeper Garden is a non-profit community demonstration garden located adjacent to Santiago Canyon College in the City of Orange. Visiting the Garden is free of charge and visitors can wander through the 2.5 acres while viewing and learning about water-wise plants, pollinators, and environmentally-friendly gardening ideas. There is also a Natural Playground for the kids! Get directions.

NATIVE SONS NURSERY: Native Sons is a wholesale nursery firmly rooted in the heart of California’s Mediterranean climatic core. The nursery provides perennials, grasses and shrubs that flourish in a climate defined by moderate winter rainfall and warm dry summers. Native Sons Nursery is a generous sponsor of the Orange County Coastkeeper Garden and provides water-wise and California native plants for the garden’s themed areas. Learn more at www.nativeson.com/.

20 YEARS OF ORANGE COUNTY COASTKEEPER: For twenty years, Southern California residents have relied on Orange County Coastkeeper to be their leading voice in protecting clean water. The organization works collaboratively with diverse groups in the public and private sectors to achieve healthy, accessible, and sustainable water resources for the region. Coastkeeper achieves this through innovative, effective programs in education, advocacy, restoration, research, enforcement, and conservation. Coastkeeper is a member of the International Waterkeeper Alliance, which has 200+ different independent programs across 29 countries. For more information, visit www.coastkeeper.org or call 714-850-1965.