The Mission: Go Native, Protect Pollinators By Linda Roberts
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endy Dorsey may have potted over 2,000 native plants this growing season, but her work as a grower and seller of these hardy plants comes down to each individual plant. A wife and mother of two grown children, Dorsey, 54, takes the nurturing of her plants seriously. “I want each plant to have the chance to succeed,” she said while looking over a table full of young plantings. And succeed they do at her Yellow House Natives nursery just outside Berryville Wendy and Tupper Dorsey where each plant receives ample moisture and proper amounts of sun and shade to flourish on its own. Dorsey’s little retail nursery overlooks husband Tupper’s thousands of young trees of all varieties raised in orderly rows to be sold wholesale to landscapers. The Dorseys are modern-day farmers—she nurtures native plants, he’s an expert in what tree grows best where. They follow a life that Tupper inherited and one Dorsey stepped into when she married him. With a smile, she recalls her father saying when she wed Tupper that “you married the farm.” Dorsey has not always had dirt under her fingernails. A native of State College, Pennsylvania , she moved to Virginia in the early 1990s. She has a master’s degree in psychology and taught for a number of years at Shenandoah University before starting her own business two years ago. She admitted that she had the idea of “if you build it they will come.” With the movement in the nursery business of promoting native plants, she selected an appropriate time to tap into this expanding trend. “Being a gardener is harder on my body than teaching,” Dorsey said, “but easier on my soul.” A lover of the outdoors and growing things, she confessed she couldn’t hold down an indoor job now after two years in the nursery business. Noting that native plants were growing in America before the European settlements arrived, Dorsey said most of her plants are native to Virginia although some originated in other parts of the east coast and now grow well in this state’s soil. Behind her thriving crop of native plants, Dorsey has another mission—to look specifically at growing plants that attract pollinators and add to and support the cycles of nature. Her business card reads “Yellow House Natives, native perennials grown locally. Specializing in plants that are pollinator friendly and have environmental applications.” Plainly put, the Dorseys appreciate nature and care deeply about the way they manage the acreage that supports both their businesses. Yellow House Natives has an increasing customer base spread by word of mouth, her participation in local plant sales and events, Facebook and the Virginia Native Plant Society. “My customers come from all walks of life and I meet the nicest people,” Dorsey said, adding that interaction with clients also gives her the opportunity to utilize her teaching skills answering their questions about native plants. “I have visitors who have small lots, who are trying to make a difference in the environment with native plants, as well as others who have large tracts, who want to incorporate natives on a big scale,” Dorsey said. “I enjoy helping the customer who may buy two plants or a carload.” Yellow House Natives is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon. Appointments can be made for other times as well. Contact Wendy Dorsey at 540-5395399 or YellowHouseNatives@gmail.com.
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MIDDLEBURG SUSTAINABLE COMMITTEE| Autumn 2022
