The Plaquemine Garden Club (PGC) was interested in learning about native plants, and Heather Blanchard volunteered to coordinate speakers and resources for a memorable and informative meeting on November 11, 2025 at the Plaquemine KC building. As the Wild Ones Greater Baton Rouge Membership Chair, Certified Native Plant Professional of Heather’s Habitat, and garden club member, this was definitely a well-matched assignment!
The main speaker was Peggy Coates, retired landscape architect and longtime director at LSU Hilltop Arboretum, Wild Ones member, and Master Naturalist. She gave a presentation about her pollinator garden, 3 ft. wide x 50 ft. long, between her driveway and a chain link fence. She discussed the design of the garden and the plant palette, which consists of native and adapted plants. For many homes in subdivisions, this is a common type of space – and a great place to start incorporating native plants! She walked the audience through this “pocket pollinator” garden by seasons. Coates highlighted vignettes of plants that work well together at different times of the year to provide multi-seasonal beauty and habitat, sharing photos and descriptions of over 20 native plants. Coates is an engaging, informed, relatable speaker, having presented multiple topics for many years. Later in the same week as our meeting, she led a “hands-on” class on winter sowing specific native seeds at LSU Hilltop Arboretum. Peggy also volunteers for the Louisiana Native Plant Society to certify properties as Louisiana Native Habitats in the Greater Baton Rouge area.
Leigh Prather, a member of the West Baton Rouge Garden Club (WBRGC), brought several healthy, young native plants that were raffled to garden club members. Along with fellow WBRGC member, Elisa Tubbs, she has been instrumental in establishing the first 11 West Baton Rouge properties as Louisiana Certified Habitats in under two years. The two have made multiple presentations about how they have coached gardeners interested in native plants, and these efforts have earned the WBRGC multiple awards. They will present at the Louisiana Garden Club State Convention in Houma, Spring, 2026.
Leigh gave Plaquemine Garden Club president, Lucky Songy, a field guide that she and Elisa created to help friends identify native plants on their property. Their guide corresponds with the plant list on the Louisiana Native Plant Society’s application for Louisiana Certified Habitats.
One challenge of gardening with native plants is finding them, as they are rarely available in retail in our region. Along the way, she began sowing native plants from seeds to share with friends and to plant in the LSU AgCenter demonstration gardens in Port Allen. Her actions have effortlessly become advocacy. For someone who started gardening with native plants only a few years ago, Leigh’s efforts exemplify how quickly someone can nurture nature and create a fantastic habitat for wildlife all year round.
Heather Younger, the owner of Friendship Acres Farm in Addis, where they are “more than a store,” brought native plants, coupons, and flyers about what the farm offers, including upcoming events, like, Christmas movie night, and Wild Will’s Fireworks in December. Adding and identifying volunteer natives on their property the last couple of years, her next native plant step is applying for the farm to be a Louisiana Certified Habitat. Be sure to visit the Friendship Acres Farm online store and reach out about pre-ordering native (and non-native) plants. You’ll get her expert input and help locating hard to find plants and support local business – all without crossing The Bridge! Pre-ordering is also a sustainable way for small businesses to start selling native plants as demand grows. A small family-run business, Friendship Acres’s hours of operation are Wednesdays – Saturdays, seasonally.
In addition, Heather Blanchard invited her native plant-loving friends to speak at the PGC meeting, with whom she collaborated on presentation content. Donna Carville, PGC Vice President, answered multiple questions along the way, handled set up, and helped package Scarlet Sage (Salvia coccinea) seeds. These seeds, along with handouts from Peggy Coates, were given to club members.
