North Carolina
Native Plant Society
Southern Piedmont Chapter
Virtual Meeting
April 11, 2021 2:00pm
What the Bees See
How Native Plants Attract Pollinators
with
Botanist Amy Tipton
In this newsletter... Southern Piedmont Chapter April Meeting
Southern Piedmont Chapter May Meeting
Spring Wildflower Celebration
Spring Plant Sales
Volunteer Opportunities
City Nature Challenge
Join US NCNPS Handouts
UNCC Native Plant Studies Classes
Follow Us on Social Media
What the Bees See
How Native Plants Attract Pollinators
with Botanist Amy Tipton
Southern Piedmont Chapter Meeting
April 11, 2021 2:00pm
Virtual Meeting Free
Open to the Public
Ever wonder what a flower looks like to a bee? Join us in April as Amy Tipton, Assistant Director of UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens, speaks about pollination strategies of plants. Learn about the characteristics of hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators that attract them to flowers. She'll also discuss which groups of plants (in some cases specific species) do this well in our area.
Amy is the Assistant Director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens. Her Masters in Botany focused on native plant ID and forest ecology, but also included many classes in aquatic ecology. Amy holds bachelor degrees in Drawing and Art History, as well as an MFA in Printmaking. She enjoys botanical drawing. In addition, she enjoys learning about historical female botanists, ecologists and scientific illustrators.
Amy has taught for over 20 years. Some of her past teaching posts have included teaching drawing, field ecology, and art appreciation at universities, literacy in elementary schools, and life science to 7th graders. She often presents talks for those interested in native plants–native plant societies, natural history societies, regional biology conferences, master gardener’s functions, etc. Since her arrival at UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens in July of 2018, Amy has taught Native Tree ID, Native Shrub ID, Botanical Drawing I & II, and Botanical Watercolor for the Certificate of Native Plant Studies program, in addition to gardening classes.
Southern Piedmont Chapter Meeting
May 9, 2021 2:00pm
Virtual Meeting Free
Open to the Public
Southern Piedmont Chapter
Spring Wildflower Celebration
Our spring wildflower celebration continues. The photo at the left was taken on the wildflower hike at Buffalo Creek Preserve in Mt. Pleasant NC. There are still some spots left for our NCNPS members-only spring wildflower hikes. Sign up for a hike below.
Buckeye Cove Spring Wildflower Hike
Huntersville NC
March 26, 2021 10-1pm
Want to know where to hike on your own? Watch this video of last month's meeting with Laura Domingo.
Spring Plant Sales
Buy native plants for your garden this spring at the UNCC Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale.
Botanical Gardens Member Sale opens March 29, 7 a.m.
Opens to the Public April 5, 7 a.m
Details here.
Wing Haven's annual plant sale opens to the public on April 15th.
Get more details about the plant sale at this Myers Park garden here.
North Carolina Native Plant Society Annual Picnic and Plant Auction
Start potting your extra native plants for the annual NCNPS picnic and native plant auction. This is a great event to get unusual native plants not typically found in the nurseries.
June 5, 2021
Hagan Stone Park
Greensboro NC
Two great opportunities to meet other native plant enthusiasts and share your love of native plants.
Help fellow Southern Piedmont Chapter volunteers install native plants along the Barton Creek Greenway in the University City area.
This is a community native plant project involving University City Partners (funding, coordination and leadership), UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens (design, plant acquisition and coordination) and NC Native Plants Society - Southern Piedmont Chapter (installation). This is an event for adults and teens (accompanied by a legal adult guardian only). Bring your own personal gloves, small shovel, trowel, kneeling pads, and comfortable gardening attire. Plan to park in one of the large parking lots at Shoppes at University Place. If you cannot make it, then please watch for similar projects in the future along the greenway.
The Southern Piedmont Chapter in partnership with Reedy Creek Nature Center is interested in starting a seed library.
What’s that? From the seed libraries website, “A seed library is a place where community members can get seeds for free or for a nominal fee and is run for the public benefit. Many seed libraries are open in public libraries and community centers.” Some focus on seeds for growing food or ornamental gardens. Our library would focus on native plants of the Piedmont and would be free.
We are currently looking for volunteers who are be interested in helping us to get this project off the ground. We would like to create a small committee to spearhead this effort. The library would be located at Reedy Creek Nature Center and we are looking at premiering it in the fall/winter of 2021.
We were inspired by the NCNPS Blue Ridge Chapter's new seed library at the Daniel Boone Native Gardens. Read more about their library here.
If you would like to learn more about seed libraries before committing, please follow this link: http://seedlibraries.weebly.com/ There is also a seed summit taking place on April 17th that you can sign up for to learn more. It will be recorded and available for 2 weeks if you are not able to attend on that date.
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.
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.
