Warning: The new 'native plant' section at the city arboretum is a total mess

I went to the Riverside Arboretum last weekend, excited to see their new native plant garden they've been promoting. What a letdown. Half the labels were wrong or missing, the 'prairie section' was just a patch of un-mowed grass with some sad looking coneflowers, and I saw three different plants that were absolutely not native to our region. One was clearly a Japanese barberry, which is invasive here. I spent about 20 minutes just trying to figure out what I was looking at before I gave up. It felt like they just threw some plants in the ground and called it a day. For a place that's supposed to teach people, it's spreading more confusion than knowledge. Has anyone else visited a public garden lately that just missed the mark completely?

3 comments

3 Comments

caleb_thomas8512d ago

Honestly, the Japanese barberry might not have been on purpose. Sometimes those things spread from nearby yards or get mixed into plant deliveries by mistake. Tbh, a lot of native plant projects start out kinda rough because they're underfunded. It's a real shame about the labels being wrong though, that just makes the whole thing pointless.

henderson.wesley12d ago

They planted Japanese barberry on purpose?

samjohnson12d ago

Tell me about it, they did the same thing with burning bush at our local park. Spent all that money just to put in an invasive species, you know? Makes you wonder who's running these projects sometimes.