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Saturday,
October 3
Fall Color Hike
along the
Ocoee River
Members only
Saturday,
October 10
Grass Identification Workshop
Saturday,
October 31
Four Seasons Hike
Members only
Saturday,
November 14
Annual Meeting at Greenway Farm
Members only
Saturday,
March 5, 2016
Plant Natives 2016!
6th Annual Native Plant Symposium
Save the Date!
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Website!
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Check us out at
wildones.org
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Invitations to
MEMBERS-ONLY EVENTS:
*"Landscapes in Progress" garden visit programs
*Guided Native Plant &
Wildflower Walks
*Native Plant Rescues
*Native Plant Nursery Visits
E-mail notices about
upcoming local native plant EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
and events.
Special DISCOUNT OFFERS
from local landscapers
and nurseries,
including
Show your Wild Ones
membership card to receive
10% off at these nurseries.
BECOME INVOLVED
with a group of
local gardeners
interested in
native plant landscaping.
PLUS all the
benefits
of a
national Wild Ones membership, including
the
New Member Handbook
with practical ways
to add native plants to
your
landscape ...
AND the quarterly
Wild Ones Journal.
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Fall Color Hike along
the Ocoee River
with Leon and Pat Bates
Saturday, October 3
FREE to Members Only
Fall tree colors will not yet be at peak in early October. However, vegetation at lower elevations along the Ocoee and surrounding ridges should be spectacular. Pools along the Ocoee upstream and downstream from the Ocoee Whitewater Center reflect brilliant fall colors in red, orange, yellow and purple.
TVWO members will meet at 10:00am at the
Ocoee Whitewater Center on Highway 64 and hike downstream along the Ocoee River and return for a 3-mile trip. This handicapped accessible trail follows a paved railroad bed along the south bank of the Ocoee. Following our return to the Whitewater Center for lunch, Wild Ones members may hike "in and out" upstream along the north bank of the Ocoee. This historic trail follows the old Copper Ore Wagon Road and provides panoramic views of pools and colorful foliage. A small fee to the Whitewater Center may be required. Space is limited.
To reserve your spot and to receive hike details, email us at
tnvalleywildones@gmail.com. Be sure to bring your lunch and water to drink.
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Grass Identification Workshop
with Dr. Cheryl Murphy
Saturday, October 10
9:00am - 12:00pm
David Hartman Homeplace
in Red Bank, TN
A benefit for The Friends of the Cumberland Trail's Trailhead Nursery
The workshop will describe how to identify major grasses likely to be used in a native plant landscape. These will include bluestems (Andropogon), plume grasses (Saccharum), switch grasses (Panicum), muhly grasses (Muhlenbergia), love grasses (Eragrostis), grama grasses (Bouteloua), gama grasses (Tripsacum) and bottle brush grass (Elymus). The classroom discussions of how to identify these will be followed by lab sessions with examples of several species of each genus.
Each attendee should bring a hand lens for use in the lab sessions and chair to sit on. The workshop will start with a grass tour from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. The class/lab sessions will be from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The workshop will be held at David Hartman Homeplace in Red Bank.
Dr. Murphy is a Faculty Associate in the UTC Biology, Geology and Environmental Science Department and has a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.
This workshop is a benefit for The Friends of the Cumberland Trail's Trailhead Nursery with a $20 donation requested, to be collected at the workshop. Grasses will be available for purchase.
If interested in attending, please email Bill Moll at
WHMoll@aol.com or call 423-702-5779. Advance registration is required - class size is limited. Upon registration, further details will be provided.
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Four Seasons Hike
with Holli Richey
Saturday, October 31, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
FREE to Members only
The "Four Seasons Hikes" explore one local natural area in each of four seasons to see how our native plants change and vary throughout the year. Each seasonal hike is held at the Rock Creek Segment of the Cumberland Trail. This event will be the third of our four seasonal hikes and will be led by herbalist
Holli Richey
.
 Attendance will be limited to 12 people. You do not need to attend all hikes. Please join us for this hike, even if you were not able to attend the spring or the summer hike.
This event is reserved for Wild Ones members only. Interested?
Join Wild Ones!
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Annual Chapter Meeting
at Greenway Farm
Saturday, November 14, 10:00 am - 2:00pm
FREE to Members only
On Saturday, November 14th the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Wild Ones membership will gather at beautiful Greenway Farm to review 2015 and prepare for another great year in 2016. Morning beverages and lunch will be provided.
 This event, including lunch, is FREE for all active members. To register and place your lunch order, please click
here and
indicate if you would like a standard, vegetarian or gluten-free lunch. This is our best opportunity to join together and collectively provide input into the future of our chapter. The meeting will end with another fabulous native plant seed and plant swap, as well as a nature walk led by Dr. Richard Clements.
The Greenway Farm is a 180-acre city park along North Chickamauga Creek in Hixson, TN, located off Hamill Road approximately 1 mile east of Highway 153. The 220 total acres managed by the City of Chattanooga as the North Chickamauga Creek Greenway features 6 miles of walking, running, hiking, and biking trails and 3 canoe access points along a 2.5 mile stretch of North Chickamauga Creek.
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Citizen Forester Training Workshops
Take Root, a program of the Chattanooga Tree Commission is once again offering Citizen Forester training workshops this fall to Chattanooga residents.
Workshops are held on Saturday morning from 9:00am to noon at several different locations around the Chattanooga area. Not only will you learn about the importance of maintaining a healthy tree canopy, but how to plant, locate and care for your trees.
Participants will also receive a certificate for a free small tree (Redbud or Flowering Dogwood) for pickup in November when conditions are ideal for planting trees.
This year, there will be two beginner workshops and one advanced workshop. Beginner workshops are for people who don't know a lot about trees; the advanced workshop is for those that do or have attended a beginner class. The dates, places and times are listed below:
Beginner Classes (choose one):
Saturday, October 3, Audubon Acres, 9 am - Noon
Saturday October 17, Greenway Farm, Hixson, 9 am - Noon
Advanced Class:
Saturday, November 21, The Barn Nursery, 9 am - Noon
Classes will be taught by International Society of Arboriculture certified arborists. There is a $20 registration fee for each workshop, payable at the beginning of class. To register, email Chattanooga Urban Forester Gene Hyde at
ghyde@chattanooga.gov or call him at
(423) 634-6839. Class sizes are limited, so sign up soon!
Take Root is a 501c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to advocate for a healthy and sustainable urban forest through education and proper tree planting and care.
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Tennessee Valley Wild Ones Chapter News
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"Save the Pollinators" Booth
at the Hamilton County Fair
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Ann Brown & Valarie Adams at the Hamilton County Fair
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During September, the Tennessee Valley Wild Ones' "Save the Pollinators Committee" presented an educational booth at the Reflection Riding Fall Plant Sale and again with the Hamilton County Master Gardeners at the Hamilton County Fair. Information was provided about the importance of pollinators - bees and butterflies in particular - and the impact of specific pesticides (neonicitinoids) on the health of these pollinators. Pollinator-friendly seeds, stickers, pollinator coloring sheets for kids, and informational literature were available. Wild Ones member Ann Brown also gave an informative presentation during the Plant Sale; her talk will be offered at additional locations in coming months.
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Our "Bee Ambassadors" at the
Reflection Riding Fall Plant Sale
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To read an article about the research results about the impact of insecticides with neonicitinoids, click
here. For a list of pesticides containing neonicitinoids, click
here.
Interested in planting to attract pollinators? Click
here to download a guide - "Selecting Plants for Pollinators" for the Tennessee Valley region.
A big thanks goes to the Committee - Ann Brown (Chair), Valarie Adams, Emily Campbell, Cheri Hubbard and Lucy Scanlon - for a great job. More information about Committee activities will be coming soon.
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Fall "Landscapes in Progress" Program
Showcases Three Signal Mountain Gardens
Landscapes in Progress programs provide an opportunity for education, promotion and encouragement of native plant gardening, as well as a chance to get to know other Wild Ones members. Rather than a garden tour where everything is "perfect," LIP is an event where Wild Ones members - host and visitor - ask questions, share information about their own gardens "in progress," and spend time with others dedicated to native plant gardening.
During September, Tennessee Valley Wild Ones members Cheri Hubbard, Ruth & Bob Blough and Nora & Bob Bernhardt opened their Signal Mountain gardens to chapter members.
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| Daniel Talley describing plants in Cheri Hubbard's garden |
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| Nora & Bob Bernhardt's garden |
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| Ruth & Bob Blough's woodland garden |
For garden descriptions, click
here.
For a list of plants in Nora & Bob Bernhardt's garden, click
here.
More
Landscapes in Progress programs will be scheduled again in 2016.
Please check our website regularly for upcoming programs.
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SAVE THE DATE!!
Saturday, March 5, 2016
The fifth annual Tennessee Valley Wild Ones native plant symposium promises to be another outstanding opportunity to learn about native plant gardening from three accomplished and respected experts, so mark your calendar for March 5, 2016.
Click
here f
or more information about featured speakers
for
Registration information will be coming soon.
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Green Lynx Spider Life Cycle in Progress
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The green lynx spider
(Peucetia viridans
) is a bright-green
lynx spider
and the largest North American species in the family
Oxyopidae
.
The female constructs one to five 2-centimeter (0.8 in) egg sacs in September and October, each containing 25 to 600 bright orange eggs, which she guards, usually hanging upside down from a sac and attacking everything that comes near. Remarkably, one of her means of defense is to squirt venom from her chelicerae, sometimes for a distance of about a foot (300 mm). The eggs hatch after about two weeks, and after another two weeks fully functional spiderlings emerge from the sac.
The species is primarily of interest for its usefulness in agricultural pest management, for example in cotton fields. The spiders have been observed to hunt several moth species and their larvae, including some of the most important crop pests, such as the bollworm moth, the cotton leafworm moth, and the cabbage looper moth. However, they also prey on beneficial insects, such as honey bees. [Info source: Wikipedia]
This past month, Mike O'Brien captured amazing photographs of a pregnant female, the egg sac and the spiderlings.
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| Pregnant Green Lynx Spider |
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| Green Lynx Spider with egg sac. Note reduced size of the abdomen. |
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| Green Lynx Spiderlings, recently hatched (one day old) |
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| Female Green Lynx Spider, mother of the spiderlings above |
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Photos from the Garden
from Wild Ones member Mike O'Brien
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Enjoy Mike's recent photos from the outdoors!
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| Winged bark elm branch close-up |
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Sassafrass tree leaf, showing fall color change
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Crab Spider on New England Aster.
Note the size comparison to the pencil tip. |
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| Black Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
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Viceroy Butterfly
The coloring and pattern of Monarch and Viceroy wings look nearly identical. However, a Viceroy has a black line crossing the postmedian hindwing (see below).
Viceroy flight is faster and more erratic. Monarch flight is float-like in comparison, with its characteristic "flap, flap, glide" pattern.
Viceroys do not migrate. They overwinter as 1st or 2nd instar larvae, rolled up in a leaf of their host plant (willow or poplar)
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Wild Ones: Native Plants. Natural Landscapes is a national non-profit organization with over 50 chapters in 13 states that promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities. Please read more information about Wild Ones at www.wildones.org.
We offer guest speakers, field trips and other special events throughout the year, as well as an annual native plant and natural landscaping symposium in early spring.
To contact our chapter, email us at tnvalleywildones@gmail.com
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