WINDY ROCK

- plants with purpose -

By Renee Lapham Collins

It’s a sunny May morning at Windy Rock Farm, where proprietor Vince Ste. Marie is setting out a pair of chairs in the shade of cedar trees for this interview in his open-air nursery, Plants with Purpose. The breeze carries the scent of spring as Ste. Marie jumps in with some background on the farm and his passion for God’s creation on display in the red and yellow tulips swaying nearby and bees buzzing from flower to flower.

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At one point, he interrupts the conversation to call attention to a bee robbing pollen from a tulip — his acute hearing picks up the buzzing sound inside the cup of the flower.

Plants with Purpose is a specialty nursery offering pollinator-friendly plants primarily native to Michigan. Ste. Marie said native plants are best-suited for the weather and soil types of the state and are “perfectly designed to meet the needs of Michigan’s pollinators.” “Our openair nursery, Plants with Purpose, is open for business,” Ste. Marie said. “As this is our home and farm, we have no brick-and-mortar store but we do welcome potential customers to come out.”

He said they have welcomed many visitors over the five years they have been in business. “Individuals and families are our most common visitors,” he said. “But we have also hosted small garden clubs and even a group of over 50 Master Gardeners once for a club field day and on-farm presentation about pollinators.

Ste. Marie and his wife, Barbara, met in a business law class at Eastern Michigan University. After graduation, they left Michigan for Florida and Washington before returning to the Mitten. They established Windy Rock Farm on 11 acres they purchased in Sharon Township in 2002. Ste. Marie said his interest in pollinators “grew out of his family’s experience with beekeeping and from learning first-hand of the challenges honeybees face. “We had been keeping bees before we started Plants with Purpose, and were amazed to learn how important trees are to the survival of honey bees and other pollinators,” he said.

Another beekeeper and arborist helped the Ste. Marie family get growing with the nursery, providing advice and mentoring. They started with a small variety of flowering trees and shrubs when they launched the venture in 2016. A stroll through their gardens and nursery is evidence that the Ste. Marie family is a family of green thumbs. “Plants with Purpose currently offers more than 35 perennial wildflower types and over 20 flowering tree and shrub species,” said Ste. Marie. “We are continually adding more pollinator friendly options to our lineup.”

He points to a Seven Sons tree, a “personal favorite,” and one of the few non-native plants he stocks, and said when it bloomed last September, he counted seven different bee and butterfly species swarming the tree for the sweet nectar. “Michigan has an amazing array of pollinators,” he said. There are more than 450 bee species, over 150 butterfly and skipper species, 18 different bumblebees, and one hummingbird species, he explained.

“The decline in pollinators globally, as well as locally, is primarily driven by habitat loss which leads directly to a steady decrease in the availability of high-quality pollen and nectar forage plants, as well as larval host plants for butterflies to lay their eggs upon,”

Ste. Marie said. “If there is no food, and nowhere for butterflies to lay their eggs, pollinators will suffer, and so will we. The inappropriate use of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides, as well as the arrival of diseases and parasites nonnative to North America have also combined to take their toll on the pollinators so critical to supplying our food needs.”

Pollinators have enormous appetites, he said. In the spring, when they are waking up from hibernation and raising their young, they need quality pollen sources from blooming trees and shrubs. “As the year moves on, pollinators also require increasing access to nectar — their sole carbohydrate or energy source,” he said. “This is provided by flowering trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. If these aren’t available, their food source is eliminated and they won’t survive.”

Ste. Marie’s narrative is informative and flows with the ease of practice and knowledge. “I enjoy teaching and public speaking, and can provide visually engaging Power Point presentations on plants and pollinators and even have one on the scary Africanized ‘Killer’ bee,” he said.

He has worked with a number of Master Gardener groups around the area, presenting information on planting for pollinators as well as bee club meetings and conferences, nature centers, and community planting events all around Washtenaw, Jackson, and Lenawee counties. When he isn’t working on his farm and with his pollinator plants, Ste. Marie is a part-time pharmaceutical representative. His primary goal is to raise awareness of Michigan’s pollinators and what everyone can do to help them survive and thrive. Every backyard butterfly garden, every buffer strip along a field or road, every pollinator-friendly flowering shrub or tree will help. “There is one thing we can all do, and that is plant,” he said. “Everyone can plant pollinatorfriendly plants.”

The nursery is open to the public Thursdays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ste. Marie suggests contacting him in advance to assure someone is available to welcome guests. n