The Native Plant Center

The Native Plant Center Steering Committee

Co-Chairs:

• Angel Morris
• Bob Finkelstein

Andrea Alban-Davies, Brooke Beebe, Jacquelyn Bergonzi, Jan Blaire, Bob DelTorto, Kim Eierman, Melissa Fabel, Barbara Fischer, Karalyn Lamb, Ursula LaMotte, Catherine Ludden, Anne Keesee Niemann, Dawn Orza, Heather Sandifer, Denise C.R. Santomero, Jessica A. Schuler, Carolyn Summers, Ken Uhle, Phillis Warden, Elizabeth S. Wattles, Lucille Werlinich

Staff:

• Carol Capobianco, Director
• Mary Ietaka, Administrative Assistant/Events Coordinator
• Patty Butter, Garden Manager/Educator

Founders:

• Marybeth Weston Lobdell
• Marie Smith Schwartz
• Betsy May Stern

Click the following link for directions to the Native Plant Center: Visit the Native Plant Center

GO NATIVE U – Classes and Certificate Programs

• Course Offerings
  
• About Go Native U

Go Native U is an educational program designed to teach people about the sustainable use and conservation of native plants. Students learn how to garden with the flowers, shrubs, and trees indigenous to the Northeast and how to do so using nature-friendly practices. They also discover the value of natives—their beauty as well as their benefits to the environment.

Modeled after the successful Go Native U course of study run by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, Go Native U at Westchester Community College is a collaboration with The Native Plant Center and offers non-credit classes designed for home gardeners as well as professionals such as landscapers, landscape architects, landscape designers, and nursery owners.

Students can enroll in single one-day and multiple-session courses or pursue a certificate, which consists of required courses (18 hours), elective courses (17 hours), a final exam, and community service at The Native Plant Center (15 hours) for a total of 50 hours. Some classes offer LA-CES-approved credit hours.

All classes are taught by qualified, experienced professionals. Upon completion of the Go Native U certificate, students will have gained an understanding of regional ecology and sustainable practices that will guide them in gardening, landscape design, grounds management, and more. 

A percentage of the tuition to Go Native U supports the work of The Native Plant Center.

To register for Go Native U courses, call (914) 606-6830 and press 1 or click here to register online.

Lynn Becker, an NYBG-certified landscape designer and horticulturist, is the founder of Trout Lily Garden Design, which emphasizes native and pollinator-friendly plants and sustainable gardening practices. She studied in the Go Native U program at Westchester Community College and continues to teach and lecture about designing healthy and beautiful landscapes in residential and public spaces. Her gardens are frequently included in the Pollinator Pathways garden tours.

Patricia Butter is a botanist and the garden manager and educator at The Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College. She is currently conducting floras of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation and Rockefeller State Park Preserve. She holds a certificate in botany from The New York Botanical Garden, where she also teaches; a certificate in sustainable gardening with native plants from Go Native U at Westchester Community College; and a BFA from Pratt Institute.

Joshua DiPaola is the natural resource specialist for Rockefeller State Park Preserve, where he oversees wildlife conservation and ecosystem management for more than 1,700 acres. He has a master’s degree in animal behavior and conservation and has worked across several conservation capacities. His experience includes working for Central Park Zoo and an aquatics lab, volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation center, supporting a disease ecology project at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and performing field research on critically endangered wildlife in Southeast Asia.

Kim Eierman is an ecological landscape designer and environmental horticulturist specializing in native plants. She is the founder of EcoBeneficial LLC based in Westchester County. Kim teaches at several institutions, presents nationwide on ecological landscape topics, and provides horticultural consulting and landscape design to residential, municipal, and commercial clients. She is the author of The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening.

Missy Fabel is an ecological landscape designer and horticulturist with a focus on native plants. She works as an ecological landscape manager on private estates in Westchester and Orange counties and as a freelance native plant designer and consultant. Missy has a certificate in botany from The New York Botanical Garden and a certificate in sustainable gardening with native plants from Go Native U at Westchester Community College, where she is on the Steering Committee of The Native Plant Center.

Lindsey Feinberg is curator of the native plant program at Westchester County’s Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center, where she supports the native plant and seed growing operations. She also manages wild seed collection throughout the county. Lindsey trained as a seed collector under the Bureau of Land Management’s Seeds of Success program in partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank, to collect seeds for restoration and resiliency along the East Coast. Her work has included monitoring plant populations, stewarding wetlands, removing invasive species, restoring degraded habitat, and teaching environmental education to students in New York City.

Bob Finkelstein, who had a long career as an environmental toxicologist, is co-chair of The Native Plant Center Steering Committee and co-president of Healthy Yards New Rochelle, where he transformed his yard into a native plant and Pollinator Pathway garden. He is also a member of the New Rochelle School District Green Initiatives Education Committee, working to facilitate the implementation of environmentally sustainable practices.

Michael Hagen is curator of the Native Plant Garden and Rock Garden at The New York Botanical Garden. Previously, he served as staff horticulturist for Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring, New York, and as garden manager at Rocky Hills in Mount Kisco, New York.

Duncan Himmelman, PhD, is the former education manager at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware. He earned his doctorate in ornamental horticulture at Cornell University, taught college during a 24-year span in the U.S. and Canada, and currently operates a landscape design and horticultural consulting business in the tri-state area.

Carolle Huber is a landscape architect who practices suburban ecology in New Jersey and the Catskills, with a focus on creating landscapes that are environmentally sustainable and cause no harm to future generations. She holds degrees in environmental science and landscape architecture. An award-winning practitioner, Carolle is widely published, including in Edible Jersey and Wild Ones.

Sarah Kornbluth, a field associate at the American Museum of Natural History, is a native bee specialist and an expert at identifying bees to species. She conducts ecological research and surveys to examine bee communities and explore the function of habitat management regimes, and has worked on powerline rights-of-way across the country, in agricultural areas, and in urban and suburban sites.

Ann Perkowski is principal of Lady Clippers, Inc., a boutique landscaping firm that specializes in fine-garden hand pruning. She is a Master Gardener and travels extensively to study proper and creative pruning techniques, including a recent residency at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens in the UK.

Jessica A. Schuler is Program Coordinator for Natural Resources at Westchester County’s Lasdon Arboretum. Previously, she was director of the Thain Family Forest at The New York Botanical Garden, where she was responsible for the management and ecological restoration of the 50-acre old-growth forest as well as for the development of education and research programs. She teaches about urban forest restoration, invasive species, and native plants. An ISA-certified arborist with a BS in plant science from Cornell, she is a member of The Native Plant Center Steering Committee.

Carolyn Summers is co-founder of Go Native U and is co-author with Kate Brittenham of the newly revised Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East. Carolyn’s 300-acre Flying Trillium Gardens and Preserve in the Catskills is open to the public by appointment. She holds a BSLA from CCNY and has worked for the Trust for Public Land, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. She is a member of The Native Plant Center Steering Committee.

Lynn Trotta is a seasoned naturalist, outdoor educator, and eco-spirituality facilitator with more than 20 years in private practice. She guides individuals and groups of all ages to find grounded peace and healing through a rooted and sacred relationship with nature.

Learn more about native plants by visiting these websites and on-site locations. 

National

• America in Bloom
• American Gardener
• Ecological Landscaping Association
• Homegrown National Park
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center
• Landscape for Life
• National Audubon Society
• Wild Ones

Regional

• Planting Westchester
• Around the Grounds
• Federated Conservationists of Westchester County
• Healthy Yards
• Hudsonia:
• Institute of Ecosystem Studies
• Native Plant Society of New Jersey
• The Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management
• Leave Leaves Alone
• The Garden Education Center of Greenwich:

Plant Societies

• Finger Lakes Native Plant Society
• Long Island Native Plant Initiative
• Native Plant Trust 
• New York Flora Association:
• Niagara Frontier Botanical Society
• Torrey Botanical Society:

Native Plant Nurseries

• Catskill Native Nursery
• Native Landscapes
• Rosedale Nurseries, Inc.
• Hilltop Hanover Farm
• Wild Gardens Nursery
• One Nature

Native Plant Information

• New York State Natural Heritage Program:
• New York Flora Atlas
• Mt. Cuba Center
• Natureserve Explorer (the Nature Conservancy’s online biodiversity encyclopedia)
• The Biota of North America
• Treadlight Farm
• Natural Areas Conservancy Forest Identification and Restoration Selection Tool

Books

• Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East  by: Carolyn Summers
• The Pollinator Victory Garden by: Kim Eierman
• The Northeast Native Plant Primer  by: Uli Lorimer
• Bringing Nature Home by: Doug Tallamy

Sites to Visit in Westchester

• Teatown Lake Reservation
• Greenburgh Nature Center
• Rye Nature Center
• Trailside Nature Museum
• Westchester County Nature Preserves
• Cranberry Lake Preserve
• Croton Point Park Nature Center
• Lenoir Preserve
• Marshlands Conservancy
• Read Sanctuary
• Untermeyer Gardens
• Ward Pound Ridge
• Westchester Land Trust

The Native Plant Center’s demonstration gardens on the Westchester Community College campus in Valhalla showcase native plants and are meant to educate and inspire people to incorporate native plants in their own landscapes. The gardens are open to the public free of charge daily until dusk.

The following sources will help you select the right native plants for your landscaping needs.

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s online database of over 7,000 species allows you to search by common or botanical name, recommended species for a specific state, and even combinations of factors such as bloom time and color. Click here to visit wildflower.org.

Plants of the Year

2024 Perennial of the Year
2024 Woody of the Year

Previous Plants of the Year

2023 Perennial of the Year
2022 Perennial of the Year
2021 Perennial of the Year
2023 Woody of the Year
2022 Woody of the Year
2021 Woody of the Year

Plant Lists

Plants for Westchester
Plants for Sun
Plants for Shade
Native Plants for Birds
Deer-Resistant Native Plants
Invasives: Do Not Plant
Native Alternatives to 12 Common Invasive Plants
Work with nature in your garden.
Ten Elements of Natural Design

Become a Member

Members enjoy many benefits while helping The Native Plant Center year round. Please join or renew today at a membership level that’s right for you. Pay online

OR, if paying by check, fill in and mail the Membership Form with payment.

Donate

Your support allows The Native Plant Center to continue its work in the education, demonstration, and conservation of native plants.

Volunteer

Help make a difference by volunteering for The Native Plant Center. Many opportunities and flexible work times are available. Chances are we need the skills you can offer. The Center is looking for volunteers for gardening, educational outreach, marketing, fundraising, and more. Please call 914-606-7870.

Past Events

At the invitation of Westchester Community College Foundation Board member Jennifer Gruenberg, the land use firm of Divney, Tung, Schwalbe (the latter is a Westchester Community College alumni) chose the college as the recipient of its annual “do-it-in-a-day” landscape project, in which they design and install a garden pro bono for a worthy cause. The targeted site on campus was the front of Gateway, which has now been transformed into an attractive, welcoming entrance with the planting of native shrubs and perennials. Much effort by many parties went into the months of planning and preparation, leading up to planting day on May 16. The project was realized with the collaboration, support, and teamwork of Divney, Tung, Schwalbe; Westchester Community College Foundation; Physical Operations; Gateway staff, and The Native Plant Center.