A project to encourage the sale of more native plants by local garden centers is underway. Members of the Roanoke Master Gardeners, Roanoke Master Naturalists, Blue Ridge Wildflower Society, and other individuals will be visiting garden centers in the Roanoke Valley to compile a list of what native plants are offered. The information will be made available to the public to encourage them to ask for native plants at these garden centers. We hope the survey will promote the value of native plants and encourage garden centers to prompt their suppliers to grow more native plants, as well as a wider variety of native plants.

This project is a collaboration between the New River Valley Regional Commission and the non-profit, Live, Work, Eat, Grow, funded by a grant from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. The project is working to set up a native plant propagation space in an effort to distribute native plants to localities and community groups across the New River Valley.