North Carolina
Native Plant Society
Southern Piedmont Chapter
December 2021 Meeting
Winter Seed Share and Social
December 12, 2021 2:00pm
Open to the Public
Reedy Creek Nature Center 2986 Rocky River Road Charlotte NC 28215 Masks Required Indoors
In this newsletter... Winter Seed Share and Social
January 2022 Meeting
NCNPS Annual Picnic
BW Wells Stewardship Fund
Member Spotlight
New Years Day Hike
Fall Hikes Photo Album
Resources for Designing and Planting Your Native Plant Garden
Join US
In case you missed it... NCNPS Handouts
UNCC Native Plant Studies Classes
Winter Seed Share and Social
Did we say social? Yes we did.
We hope to see you at one of our best attended meetings of the year. Bring a snack to share along with your packaged seeds. Don't have seeds to share? Come anyway to enjoy a snack with your native plant friends.
If weather permits, this event will be held outside in the picnic shelter behind the nature center. If not, the event will go on inside the nature center. Masks may be required inside depending on current Mecklenburg County guidelines.
See tips for preparing your seeds for the seed share and ethical guidelines for wild seed collection below.
Meeting Bonus
The Southeast Native Plant Primer by Dr. Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross will be available for purchase at a discounted price of $20 at the meeting. Pay with cash or check.
How to Prepare Your Seeds
for the Seed Share
Place the cleaned seeds in small packets with a teaspoonful for smaller seeds or 3-4 if they are large.
Use paper envelopes or plastic bags labeled with both the common name and the scientific name.
Guidelines for Ethical Wild Seed Collection NCNPS supports the use of native plants in landscaping and ecological restoration, and encourages the collection and sharing of seeds, spores and cuttings from native plants on your own property. We must, however, recognize the sensitivity of these plants as well as the wild environments in which they grow. With the goal of plant conservation and maintaining healthy native plant populations in mind, NCNPS has developed the following guidelines for the ethical collection of native plant propagules from natural areas.
January 2022 Meeting Conserving North Carolina's Imperiled Plants
An important element of the Native Plant Society mission is conservation of native plants. Join us at our January meeting when Program Manager Lesley Starke discusses how the NC Plant Conservation Program is working to conserve the native flora of our state.
January 9, 2022 2:00pm Zoom Meeting Open to the Public
Don’t forget as you clean your home garden for fall. The Southern Piedmont Chapter is hosting the annual NCNPS state picnic in June. If you are dividing native plants in your garden please pot some up to donate to our annual native plant sale. This sale is one of the best opportunities of the year to get and share a wide variety of native plants, all donated by fellow native plant enthusiasts.
This Giving Season
Donate to the North Carolina Native Plant Society BW Wells Fund
Grants from the BW Wells Stewardship Fund support community organizations working to restore and revitalize natural landscapes, install native plant gardens, and teach others about the importance of native plants.
We need your help to build our fund! We receive many more proposals than we can award, and the number of applications grows every year. We’re grateful that there are more people than ever committed to saving our native flora, but to support them, we need your donations.
Watch this video to learn more about the BW Wells Fund and read more about fund projects here.
Member Spotlight
Andrea Thunem
NCNPS just named SPC member Andrea Thunem editor of Native Plant News, the Society's quarterly newsletter. Andrea, who lives in Charlotte, brings perfect experience to her new post. Before she trained and worked as a landscape designer, she got a degree in journalism and held several editorial positions. Congratulations, Andrea!
Start 2022 with a New Year's Day Hike
We've been invited on a hike by the Three Rivers Land Trust. See the invitation below.
Hello Triad and Southern Piedmont NCNPS Chapters,
Three Rivers Land Trust was awarded a NCNPS Alice Zawadzki Land Conservation Fund grant to help acquire 215 acres adjacent to Morrow Mountain State Park. We are excited to announce that the project closed last week! We will be celebrating this achievement and thanking our funding partners at a hike on the property January 1, 2022 at 9am. We wanted to invite the near-by NCNPS chapters to attend and explore the property that will soon be transferred to Morrow Mountain State Park. We would love for your members to attend. The event is free but we ask that participants register on our website (https://threeriverslandtrust.org/event/new-years-day-hike/)
Fall Hikes Photo Album
Southern Piedmont Chapter members enjoyed nature and fellowship on our hikes in October and November. Special thanks to our hike leaders who shared their time and expertise: Laura Domingo, Brett Dupree, Amy Tipton, Mandy Bloom and Larry Mellichamp. Also, much appreciation to Carla Vitez for sharing stories of her home garden with us.
Resources for Designing
and Planting Your Native Plant Garden
Thinking about starting a native plant garden or adding natives to your current landscaping? Here are some resources for your landscaping projects this fall.
More about Pocket Prairies
In this video, Maegan Luckett of Duke Gardens discusses prairies including Piedmont prairies and pocket prairies. She also describes how Duke Gardens horticulturists created a pocket prairie in the parking lot at Duke Hospital.
Just released! A guide to landscaping your NC Piedmont garden with native plants from the North Carolina Native Plant Society. This useful booklet suggests and describes best Piedmont native shrubs, trees, ferns, grasses and sedges and flowering perennials. Download your copy at this link.
Join Us.
Support the mission of the North Carolina Native Plant Society.
Get to know your fellow native plant enthusiasts.
Don't miss any of our members-only hikes and events.
Annual membership only $25 for individuals and $35 for families.
In case you missed it... Use the links below to watch the zoom recordings of the speakers at our last two meetings.
Clint Brooks of Mecklenburg County Natural Resources discusses the unique challenges and safety requirements for prescribed fires in Charlotte’s urban setting. Watch here.
Join Mark Warren of the Medicine Bow Wilderness School as he discusses how some of the most common native trees and plants were used by the Cherokee for food, medicine, insect repellant, crafts, shelter and fire. Watch here.
NCNPS has four handouts to help you select native plants for your garden. They are Favorite Native Plants for the Garden, A Native Plant Color Palette for the Garden, Native Groundcovers for the Garden and Ferns. You can download a copy of these handouts at this link: https://ncwildflower.org/native_plants/handouts/
UNCC Certificate in Native Plant Studies
UNCC Botanical Gardens has new classes in its Native Plant Studies certificate program. They include basic and advanced botany, sustainable gardening, landscape design, soils and wildflower ID. Click on this link for more information and to register for classes.
