The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) will be co-hosting with the City of Gretna a first ever iris planting volunteer event at Gretna City Park on Saturday, December 13th from 9 AM until noon or until all of the irises are planted, whichever comes first.
This volunteer event is open to the public to participate.
The native I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris from our rescue program will be used for the planting.
The majority of the irises that we rescue are planted in refuges and nature preserves throughout Southeast Louisiana, but LICI currently has some locations where we plant rescued irises as a place for them to multiply on their own without any maintenance being needed by anyone. The blooming irises will be in view to the public, which furthers our goal of raising awareness of this wonderful native Louisiana plant. But the most important reason we plant them at these sites is for the irises to safely grow for years and still be available to us to thin out for future iris restoration projects. This will a supply of irises each year to be used within the park for further plantings or for iris restoration projects in other areas. Gretna City Park will now be one of those locations.
Please bring your own long handled shovel. We will be planting the irises right at the water's edge, so it may be muddy. ,You may want to wear regular rain boots or old shoes. Bottled water will be supplied.
The irises will be planted in a rainwater detention area near the Claire Ave. entrance to the park.
Its important that everyone that would like to participate send us an email at
bGljaXNhdmVpcmlzZXMgfCBnbWFpbCAhIGNvbQ== so that we know how many irises to bring. We'd like to try and plant as many as we can, but we need plenty of volunteers for us to plan all of the irises that we have available.
Each volunteer will be asked to sign a liability waiver at the start of the event.
The event will be held subject to the weather.
All help will be greatly appreciated!
