The Nursery
The Crew
The Dogs
Catskill Native Nursery specializes in
nursery-propagated North American perennials, fruits, shrubs
and trees. Native plants are a natural choice for woodland,
meadow, and aquatic gardens. Most are equally at home in the
flower borders around your house.
Native plants are ornamental, easy to
maintain and provide food and habitat for birds, butterflies,
bees and other wildlife - and yourself. Many natives are
becoming scarce in the wild - you can help to restore
biodiversity by adding native plants to your landscape. Come
and browse - you might be surprised at the unique beauty and
garden worthiness of our native flora.
Francis Groeters, Owner
Zoe and Brynja
I grew up in the next town over from the
nursery - in Marbletown, more specifically, the hamlet of
Lomontville. Before starting Catskill Native Nursery, I was an
insect ecologist in academia. I have degrees from Williams
College (Biology BA), the University of Iowa (Zoology MS) and
the University of California at Davis (Zoology PhD). I did
research post-doctorals at the Australian National University,
Research School of Biological Sciences in Canberra (5 years);
the University of Hawaii, Department of Entomology (2 years);
and the University of South Carolina, Department of Biological
Sciences (2 years). Most of my research involved insects that
feed on plants so I was always growing plants to feed my
insects. Other than that I've had no formal horticultural
training or experience. As an ecologist though I 've had a long
interest in the flora of whatever place I happened to be living
in at the time. And as a child, nature was a hobby - I was
mostly interested in birds and woody plants. So, I grew up
learning Catskill Mountain plants, I know the California flora
pretty well, the Australian flora not as well as I'd like, the
Hawaiian flora a little bit (most of it is overrun with
invasive exotics) and the southern Appalachian flora pretty
well. Started building the nursery in 1997, opened for business
in 1999
Zoe (on the right) is a mixed-breed with
some chow-chow somewhere in her parentage because she has a
purple tongue. She was rescued from a shelter at Newburgh New
York in 1997.
Brynja is our new puppy this winter of
2008. She is an Icelanding Sheepdog - friendly, smart,
energetic and a bit of a barker.
In Memoriam
Sandy died 9 October 2007. Here she is in
my mother’s backyard next to double bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis ‘Multiplex’).
Sandy was a mixed-breed dog, probably
beagle and collie, that I rescued from a shelter at Columbia,
South Carolina in 1994. She had heartworm and they were
thinking of euthanizing her, but gave her a chance when I
indicated I would adopt her. Over her lifetime she walked, I
would guess, a few thousand miles with me.
If you would simply like to learn more
about gardening with native plants, feel free just to visit the
display gardens around the 150 year old farm house where we are
located in semi-rural upstate New York, such as the Well Garden
shown here.
Most of our gardens are a mix of native and
non-native plants. We also have a native-only dry shade garden,
the beginnings of a wildflower meadow between the zig-zag fence
and Samsonville Road, a native-only butterfly garden (pictured
below), and a native fruit orchard featuring pawpaws, a
‘Meader’ persimmon, blueberries, dwarf lingonberry,
serviceberries, and an ‘Illinois Everbearing’
mulberry.
Diane, Owner
Green Witch Herbs & Garden Design was
founded by my partner, Diane, in 2001, as a natural progression
of growth in our nursery business. This allowed us to
compliment our stock of native plants with a variety of garden
favorites, including herbs, and take advantage of Diane’s
ability and training to create very special gardens.
Diane’s background includes studies in fine art, drawing,
painting and architecture while living in New York City. She
earned a BA in Art History from NYU, and has studied at Art
Students’ League. Her practical experience in gardening
began as an apprentice at Peconic River Herb Farm on Long
Island. She has studied horticulture at The Brooklyn Botanical
Garden, and herbalism in the Catskills. Diane has had a
long-time passion for plants, even when it could only be
satisfied by tending a roof garden in Brooklyn (it takes
dedication to carry 50 lb. bags of compost up three flights of
stairs). She considers her official title to be Professional
Peasant. You may visit her (sometimes weedy) display gardens at
the nursery and marvel at her vegetable garden that has learned
to take care of itself, since Diane is mostly off working in
other people’s gardens.
Just below the upper parking area is a
Catskill rocky summit plant community we started at the 2005 Wildflower Festival. It features mountain laurel, bush honeysuckle,
lowbush blueberry, sweet fern, common juniper, bearberry,
three-toothed cinquefoil, Pennsylvania sedge and little
bluestem. Like most gardens it’s still a work in progress
and we hope to add scrub oak, woodland sunflower, pasture rose,
and others. Look for pictures amongst others under
“Gardens”. Our inspiration for the garden is the
flora of South Mountain in the Catskills, especially along the Escarpment Trail.
There is easy access to the trail from the North-South Lake
campground and the trail is
not too strenuous - so check it out if you enjoy camping and
hiking. If you just want to do the hike, free parking is
available at a parking area off Schutt Road, just before the
entrance to the campground.
