Today’s spotlight is on Grow Native! Certified Pro Sue Bartelette, who became certified in 2023. Sue owns Grow Native! professional member Flower and Garden Design in Jamestown, Missouri, and also works with Grow Native! professional member Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Specialty Crops/Native Plants Program in Jefferson City.
Sue has been in the landscaping profession for more than 40 years, including time with Missouri River Community Network (which became Missouri River Relief), educating the public about clean water and rain gardens as a way to slow water as it travels through the landscape. She started Flower and Garden Design in 1995. Regarding her approach to gardening and design, she states, “Gardens are not static, they change and grow and mature. I like to design in layers or with an understanding of canopy, mystery and surprise as well as access and beauty.”
Lincoln’s Native Plant Outdoor Laboratory in October 2013. Photo: Sue Bartelette.
Sue has done a lot of native plant landscape design for residences and businesses, but has also worked extensively on gardens at Lincoln University that are public and accessible. Lincoln University’s Native Plant Outdoor Laboratory was created in 2009 with funding from a National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant and Sue finished the design 2010. Inducted as an inaugural Native Garden of Excellence by Grow Native! in 2021, it is an educational garden that highlights the Specialty Crops/Native Plants program of Lincoln University Cooperative Extension, with exclusively Missouri-native flowers, grasses, ground covers, shrubs and trees.
Sue has created other designs at and for Lincoln as well. Finca EcoFarm, also located on Lincoln’s Jefferson City campus, is approximately two acres of raised beds, with greenhouses and producing native fruit trees, shrubs, tubers, greens, flowers and berries.
Drawing of Lincoln’s FINCA EcoFarm by Sue Bartelette.
Drawing of Busby native fruit trials by Sue Bartelette.
A “finca” is a small, sustainable farm in El Salvador and other Latin American countries where native plants, fruits, flowers, vegetables and animals are grown for food and income. In Latin America, fincas have endured for centuries as a traditional way of life. In Missouri FINCA refers to the project Families Integrating Nature, Conservation and Agriculture funded by NIFA. The Finca EcoFarm was created in 2012 and rebuilt in 2021, with many of the species in the first planting still thriving. Its main focus is researching native edible species and their value-added products. Busby Native Fruit Finca, located at Lincoln’s organic Busby Farm near Jefferson City, is also approximately two acres of Missouri-native fruit and pollinator plants, with a prairie strip that is being installed. This native fruit Finca was replanted in 2021.
Nottingham Apartments courtyard garden designed by Sue Bartelette.
At Nottingham Apartments in Kansas City, Missouri, the garden installed in 2020 was a collaboration with Lincoln’s Specialty Crops/Native Plants program, Grow Native!, and Westside Housing. This project provided instruction on how to design, install, and maintain a native plant garden as part of the “Native Plant Academy,” which offers education to underserved individuals on various topics related to native plants.
In all her work, Sue embraces landscape design as a discipline that incorporates art as well as horticulture, and that can be adapted to satisfy different needs. “A good designer is educated in design and how the design coordinates with the client’s desires,” says Sue. “A good designer also has an understanding of landscape construction and how the garden can be built. Every client brings their own personality into the play of their design and my technique is to align myself with their needs, desires and offer my support as a tool for them to acquire the landscape that they want.” Now designing exclusively Missouri-native gardens, Sue emphasizes one of the many merits of native plants, saying, “I have always included native flowers and grasses in flower bed design. They are resilient!”
Sue with Lincoln’s University Cooperative Extension, sharing information about its Specialty Crops/Native Plants Program.
In 2025, the Missouri Prairie Foundation’s Grow Native! program is 25 years old. For a quarter century, this native plant education and marketing program has been a significant catalyst for the growth of the native landscaping movement in the lower Midwest and beyond. Certification offered by Grow Native! is a voluntary program that provides recognition of an individual’s knowledge and skills related to working with native plants in a professional capacity. Since launching in 2022, more than 30 native plant professionals have earned credentials through the Grow Native! Professional Certification Program. Learn more here.
