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Attract butterflies to your yard
vols potting
Volunteers pot plants in one of the garden's greenhouses - photo by Photo provided.

SAVANNAH – Home gardeners can create butterfly-friendly habitat to attract and preserve butterflies and other native pollinators and enjoy the beauty and interest they provide. The key is starting with the right plants.

A group of 15 Master gardeners have been meeting twice a week at the Bamboo Farm & Coastal Gardens since January to grow a special group of plants guaranteed to attract butterflies and other pollinators to your garden. They will be selling their plants on April 4 from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Bamboo Farm & Coastal Garden. For sale will be key butterfly attractors like salvia, lantana, black-eyed Susan, parsley, basil, cosmos and lobelia. In addition, you will find shrubs like firespike, cigar plant, and golden dewdrop.  There will also be seven varieties of sun-tolerant coleus. Quantities are limited, so arrive early.  For more information, call 912-921-5460. 

Visitors to the 50-acre Bamboo Farm will experience one of Savannah’s hidden treasures. Display gardens, bamboo groves, pick-your-own strawberries and blackberries in season, places to picnic and to walk are to be found in this historic site. Nationally known for the bamboo collection and palm collection, the farm is now developing an extensive camellia garden with the help of the Southeast Camellia Society. Recently the Farm drew public attention for research into growing bananas in the local area. 

Begun in 1918 as a USDA plant introduction station, the Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens is today a part of the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension with the mission to provide education, public outreach and applied research in horticulture and environmental sciences.  The Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens is located at the intersection of U. S. 17 South and Canebrake Road. The entrance is a quarter mile south of Wal-Mart and a mile north of the Ogeechee River Bridge.

The garden’s Web site is http://www.ugaextension.com/bamboo

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