Perry Rubens: ReWild Student Organizer of the Week
Published 2023-09-17
Perry is a junior at Paul D. Schrieber High School in Port Washington. He has always enjoyed gardening and appreciated the aesthetics the annuals added, but mainly focused on the vegetable garden since it gave him a real reward in the form of food. Two years ago, Perry learned about the importance of native plants, and how our local pollinators need them to feed themselves and support our ecosystems. He was intrigued by the idea of practical flowers and inspired to create a native plant garden after participating in the ReWild Long Island Summer Program to Fight Hunger and Climate Change.
Perry’s backyard garden has room for vegetables, ornamental plants and now a variety of native plants that he selected in a site that he designed. Perry enjoys seeing the changes and learning what works, what doesn’t and how the garden provides ecological service to local pollinators. It’s a work in progress!
Perry’s Plant List:
- Arcostaphylos uva-ursi (bearberry)
- Cornus sericea (red twig dogwood)
- Dryopteris marginalis (marginal wood fern)
- Huchera americana (huchera/American alumroot)
- Hydrangea arborescens (smooth hydrangea)
- Iris veriscolor (blue flag iris)
- Matteuccia struthiopteris (ostrich fern)
- Pesntemon digitalis (foxglove beardtongue)
- Phlox paniculata (garden phlox)
- Phlox subulata (moss phlox)
- Thuja plicata (green giant arborvitae, native to Western US)
- Asmonia Hubrichtii (hugbricht’s bluestar)
- Pycnanthemum tenuifolium (narrow leaf mountain mint)
- Coreopsis lanceolata (lace-leaved coreopsis)
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