Protect Our Pollinators (POP) members added their touch of native plants to a field on the corner of Blackman Road and Main Street on Saturday, June 11. They planted 96 milkweed plants at Blackman Preserve, a Newtown Forest Association (NFA) property enclosed by Blackman Road to its north and Mt Pleasant Road to its south.

The contribution by POP aids the Field of Flowers project started in recent months by NFA member Harvey Pessin. The Newtown resident aims to gather native plants and seeds from residents and create a meadow on the property.

"The project is going better than I ever expected," Mr Pessin said via e-mail this week. "I'm getting a great response from Newtowners on several fronts."

The project coordinator has placed seed collection stations at the Parks and Recreation Department office at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street; and at C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street. Many residents have already contributed seeds at those locations.

Mr Pessin's plan is to propagate those seeds into plugs that will be planted at Blackman Preserve in the fall. "Of great interest" to Mr Pessin are the stories that some donors attached to their seed packets.

"Some seeds came over on a boat from Italy in the early 1900s, and some seeds have been passed down within the family for three generations," he said. Residents have also provided root cuttings and plant divisions. People can leave them on the stone wall in the back of his driveway at 59 Main Street.

"Most mornings it's a great surprise to see what plants have been left there. I love planting them at the Blackman Preserve," he said.

Protect Our Pollinators is a group devoted to preventing more population decline of honeybees and other pollinators. Newtown Forest Association's Blackman property is 3.7 acres that NFA describes as a meadow "containing some recently planted Princeton Elm Trees that should be resistant to the blight that took most of the native elm trees."