Important Note About the 2024 Native Plant Sale
The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art is undergoing several renovation projects to improve the visitor experience over the coming months and year ahead, all of which are related to ongoing recovery efforts resulting from the historic flood that devastated our buildings and campus in 2021. With the construction activity happening around our campus, which includes a complete renovation of the Museum’s outdoor courtyard, the Brandywine has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2024 Wildflower, Native Plant and Seed Sale (typically held annually over Mother’s Day Weekend).
With the courtyard renovations underway, the Brandywine will not have a proper place to host this year’s sale. Additionally, instead of working to propagate new plants for the annual sale, the Brandywine’s dedicated garden staff and volunteers will be focusing their efforts on recovering and preserving as many native plants from around our campus as possible that are located in impacted construction areas—including our much-beloved Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) that have been blooming along our campus grounds for decades. This effort will be a huge undertaking for our garden team as they try to preserve the history and local genetics of our native plant gardens and honor the decades of work that they have put into maintaining these beautiful plantings around our campus. Recovered plants will be transplanted into temporary holding areas within our plant nurseries—occupying spaces that would typically be reserved for propagating new plants for the annual sale. Our goal is to add as many of these rescued plants as possible back into our campus landscape once construction is complete.
While we are disappointed that we cannot host this year’s Native Plant Sale, we are happy to share that our Seed Program will continue to operate as normal. Packets of seed for over 100 native plant species can be purchased year-round. Click here for more information.