About Sally, Owner and Grower at Wild Ginger Woodlands, pictured here with her grandson

Sally’s love of nature began when she was a child. From a young age, she wanted to be outside exploring fields, streams and forests. She remembers hikes with her dad and siblings when they stopped to look for salamanders and insects under logs. They would bring home Cecropia moth cocoons to pin to the drapes and later, watch the moths emerge.

Both Sally’s dad and her grandma were gardeners and she was given her own little plot to grow things as early as age 5. Her grandma had a woodland garden and it’s really special that the wild geranium she has in her yard that provide seeds for the nursery originally came from this garden.

In early high school, Sally had an insect collection that earned her extra credit because she went so far beyond the requirements. She remembers her high school biology teacher drawing the alternation of generations of ferns on the blackboard, which was the spark for her interest in plants, especially ferns.

During high school she was also able to study at Central Michigan University’s Beaver Island Biological Station for three summers and that is where she began to learn Michigan’s native plants by studying in bogs, forests and dunes.

Sally attended college at Adrian College and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with an emphasis in Botany, as well as a Psychology B.S. Later, she attended Michigan State University where she earned her Masters of Science in Plant Pathology, working on chestnut blight.

When her own children were small, she and her husband Mark bought a home in Haslett, MI on ten acres of land. Her land includes different types of habitat including a pond, an area with high calcium soil, and woodland areas. She soon realized that typical landscaping plants did not belong on the property and wanted to know more about the plants that would naturally be there.

It was volunteering at a garden that opened her mind to creating gardens full of native plants and she began attending the local Wild Ones chapter. In order to attract birds to the yard she also joined the local Audubon chapter. She later served on the boards of both organizations.

Something really clicked when Sally read Doug Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home and she began buying native plants from WildType Native Nursery and Designs By Nature. Then she began to be interested in growing them on her own. She started growing plants for Vern at Designs By Nature and he mentored her in business. In 2022 she began selling at conservation district plant sales and to the public. At that time, her business was known as Michigan Woodland Wildflowers and Ferns.

She now has a passion for growing woodland plants, especially ferns. These plants take more time and patience to grow than prairie plants, but Sally is determined to help get native plants into peoples’ yards for positive effect on pollinators and other wildlife. She grows her plants from seed, most of them Michigan genotype, and she grows her ferns from spores.

Sally’s husband, Mark, has been an amazing supporter building the green house, accompanying Sally to sales, and more!

The business is now known as Wild Ginger Woodlands, and Sally is excited to welcome new clients to her business and to provide these plants to a wide audience as many of them are hard to find for purchase.