On Tuesday, February 20, The Master Gardeners of Door County will host Charlotte Lukes who will present “Wild Orchids of Door County… A Tribute to Honor Roy Lukes and Spring in Door County [We at Crossroads miss Roy and spring.]

Notice that neither  Karen or Charlotte will be talking about common plants like dandelions and other weeds.  Weeds  can survive and flourish in a broad range of growing conditions. Rare plants are rare because they can’t grow just anywhere.  Rare  plants tend to be adapted to specific and usually hostile conditions.

Similarly, in order to survive and reproduce, the colorful wild birds we love and want to attract also have specific habitat and food requirements.

Monday night, Karen will illustrate that attracting birds involves more than filling a couple of bird feeders or adding a bird bath. This time of year, it is easy to assume that most birds live on sunflower seeds. And it true that most of our winter birds  subsist on seeds.  But 96% of terrestrial bird species require caterpillars to feed their young, and most caterpillars can feed only on specific host plants, and those host plants are invariably native species.

Entomologist and educator Doug Tallamy puts it this way: “A world without bugs is a world without biodiversity.” and because baby birds eat only caterpillars and other insects,  “no native plants….no baby birds.”  Karen will explain how landscaping with native plants will increase biodiversity and increase the bird population of a property.

Describing Door County in her beautiful book , Journey in Green Places, Virginia S. Eifert described rare plants as “the haves and the have-nots—they are the ones which manage to live with too little water or with too much water, in too much sun or in too much shade, in too much acidity or with too little nitrogen, in too much heat and too much cold, in too long a winter and too short a growing period, in too much wind or in too little air.
On Tuesday, Charlotte will show stunning images of the exquisite orchids which manage survive and thrive in the more hostile growing conditions of Door County.

Both programs are free and open to the public.

Ski for Free has not operated as much as we had hoped this winter. We haven’t given up, but  because we can’t predict weather, the same policy applies. We will be open if conditions permit.