April is Native Plant Poetry Month! How do we celebrate?

By Lise Fracalossi

Guess what April is?

… no, not my birth month. (Although, good guess!) It’s National Poetry Month AND National Native Plant Month!

What better way to celebrate than to feature the work of American/Canadian poets who write about native plants?

Details:

  • I’m sticking with the native plants of the northeast US and Canada, because they’re what I know best.
  • This will be a series of social media posts on the Red Trillium Gardens Instagram and Facebook – with echoes on Bluesky.
  • I can’t promise a daily post – that’s a lot! – but I’ll try to bring you 2-3 a week.
  • Each social media post will feature one poem from one poet (historical or modern) about one plant. You’ll get quotes from the poem along with photos of the plant in question (see below for an example).
  • Become a Ko-fi supporter of the nursery – for as low as $3/month – and gain early access to each post!
An image of a forest floor in spring with various mosses, ferns, and flowers. In the foreground is a quote from Douglas Tallamy in Nature's Best Hope: 'Gardening in the traditional sense is optional, but earth stewardship is not'

The format will be something like this -- but, of course, with native plant poetry!

Some of the poems/plants we’re planning to showcase are:

  • “The Blue-Flag in the Bog” - Edna St. Vincent Millay - Iris versicolor
  • “The Yellow Violet” - William Cullen Bryant - Viola pubescens
  • “Trilliums” - Mary Oliver - Trillium grandiflorum
  • “Ghost Flower” - Mary Thacher Higginson - Monotropa uniflora
  • “May Flower” - Emily Dickinson - Epigaea repens (trailing arbutus)
  • “The Rhodora” - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Rhododendron canadense
  • “I’uni Kwi Athi? Hiatho” - Roberta Hill Whiteman - Corylus spp. (hazelnut)
  • “Mountain Laurel” - Kasey Jueds - Kalmia latifolia
  • “Decaedom: A Spell for Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina)” - Alison Granucci
  • “Marcescence” - Denton Loving - Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
  • “Red” - Cheryl Savageau - Acer spp. (maple)
  • “Silver Maple, Solstice” - Julie E. Bloemeke - Acer saccharinum

… and more? We’ll see what I can manage while also prepping the nursery for spring!

I also intend to use this post as the central repository for information about the poem and the plant – links to the whole poem, image attribution, info about the plant, etc. I’ll update this as posts are released.

I hope you’ll follow along!

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Featured image: a gilled shelf mushroom (possibly Panellus stipticus, or luminescent panellus). Photographed March 2025, by me, Lise Fracalossi.