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Monday,
August 10
6:00 pm
Inviting the Butterflies In
Free and Open
to the Public
Monday,
September 14
6:00 pm
The Ferns of Tennessee
Free and Open
t
o the Public
Saturday,
March 5, 2016
Plant Natives 2016!
6th Annual Native Plant Symposium
Details Coming
Soon
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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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SAVE THE DATE!!
Saturday, March 5, 2016
The sixth 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 NOW. Featured speakers will include:  Dr. Larry Mellichamp is a retired Professor of Botany and Horticulture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he has taught for over 38 years. He is also director of the University's Botanical Gardens which has 10 acres of outdoor gardens including many native plants. He has written many technical and popular articles on plants and gardening, and has co-authored five books: including "The Winter Garden" (1997); "Wildflowers of the Western Great Lakes Region" (1999); "Bizarre Botanicals" with Paula Gross (2010), and most recently, "Native Plants of the Southeast (and their garden uses)" (2014).  Ron Lance has authored or contributed to 18 publications dealing with native woody plants of the Southeastern U.S., including "Woody Plants of the Southeastern U.S., a Winter Guide" by the University of Georgia Press, and "Hawthorns of the Southeastern United States."
 Tony Glover, an expert on native fruits of the southeast, has written numerous Alabama Extension Service publications and he was the principal editor for the first edition of the Alabama Master Gardener Handbook. He is a frequent speaker on Native Plants of the Southeast and has spoken on two occasions at the Central South Native Plant Conference.
Click here for more information about featured speakers for Plant Natives 2016! Registration information will be coming soon.
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Inviting the Butterflies In
with Angie Leubben
Monday, August 10
6:00 pm
FREE and Open to the Public
green|spaces
63 E. Main Street, Chattanooga TN
Most people love butterflies, and most would happily welcome more of them into their yards. Come and learn about simple strategies that you can use to entice the maximum number of our regional butterfly species into your yard. If you plant it, they will indeed come.
Angie Luebben is a local area resident who is a Registered Nurse by trade and a nature lover by passion. She has fed, sheltered, and lovingly observed her native yard birds for most of her life, and for the past 7 years has been planting for and hand-raising butterflies. She does not consider herself to be a gardener, but instead, a devoted nature lover who very intentionally fills her yard with plants that benefit the creatures which inhabit it. She does not use any insecticides in her yard, and she believes that everything matters and has its purpose.
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The Ferns of Tennessee
with Dr. Pat Blackwell Cox
Monday, September 14
6:00 pm
FREE and Open to the Public
green|spaces
63 E. Main Street, Chattanooga TN
T
ennessee is home to many native ferns, as well as some undesirable invasives, but many amateur and even professional botanists can find it difficult to distinguish one fern from another. On Monday, September 14, 2015, the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Wild Ones will host a presentation on "Ferns of Tennessee" by retired TVA Botanical Specialist Patricia Blackwell Cox. Dr. Cox will explain the terminology associated with ferns' structure and will discuss the most common ferns in Tennessee, the rarest ferns in the state, and invasive fern species.
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The Cullowhee Native Plant Conference
July 15-18
Cullowhee, North Carolina
The purpose of the Cullowhee Conference is to increase interest in and knowledge of propagating and preserving native southeastern plant species in the landscape. Past participants of the conference have included landscape architects, commercial nursery operators, garden club members, botanists, and horticulturists from state highway departments, universities, native plant societies, botanical gardens, and arboretums. Both professionals and laypersons will gain valuable knowledge from the informative fieldtrips, lectures and workshops.
The program schedule allows for informal sessions where participants can exchange ideas. We encourage you to make good use of this opportunity.
The conference is held at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Cullowhee is located between the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains, approximately fifty miles west of Asheville. Close to both the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cullowhee is in an ideal location for anyone with an interest in nature.
Click
HERE for more information.
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Native Plant Information and Resources
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Learn More About Native Plants
Are you interested in learning more about native plants? Do you want help identifying native plants in your garden? In addition to the programs presented by Wild Ones, there are many books, publications and web resources available for you. Our chapter website is a great place to locate some helpful information.
Under the
Learn tab of our website, you'll find several pages with helpful information. The
Resources page contains a list of books and publications of interest, as well as links to a number of web databases. A favorite web site for many of our members is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with its "Native Plant Information Network," searchable by plant common and botanical names. For each native plant, there are photographs, as well as growing and habitat information. We list a number of other websites that provide easy access to information about the native plants of the Tennessee Valley.
Thanks to Tennessee Valley Chapter member Ann Brown for her contributions to our list of resources.
A new section of our website called
In the News provides links to recent articles and publications of interest. Currently, you'll find links to information about the new "Million Pollinator Garden Challenge" and also a research summary about the effect of neonicotinoid insecticides on bees.
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Wildlife Corridor Initiative and more...
An update from Sally Wencel, Vice-President of Wild Ones National Board
and Tennessee Valley Chapter member.
The Wild Ones Board met June 20 and reviewed a number of items, including an update on the Executive Director search, the recently approved social media partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Wild Ones' participation in the National Pollinator Garden Network (NPGN) and a proposal for a new program based on a program being designed by the West Cook County Chapter.
Regarding the latter, the West Cook County chapter was inspired by Doug Tallamy's call for building the nation's largest national park comprising private and public landscapes restored with native plants to create habitat. This Wildlife Corridor Initiative is distinguished from the NPGN by focusing on using native plants (the NPGN recommends natives or non-invasive ornamentals) and reducing/eliminating pesticide use. As Pam Todd, one of project leaders states, "This is the perfect moment for Wild Ones to reach more people and leverage the growing interest in issues like pollinator health, declining bird population, the damage done by pesticides, and the usefulness of native plants . . ." The Wild Ones Board agrees with Pam and is putting together an ad hoc committee to develop a nationwide program based on this wildlife corridor project. This is a natural extension of the Wild for Monarchs program and I'm excited to see this program's initiation. Stay tuned in for more developments.
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Pipevine Swallowtail Life Cycle in Progress
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Starting on June 17th, TVWO member Mike O'Brien noticed a female Pipevine Swallowtail (
Battus philenor
) laying eggs on a Pipevine
(Aristolochia macrophylla) in his garden in north Alabama. Mike is photographing the development of the eggs and is generously sharing the process with us. The life cycle from egg to butterfly is expected to take 33 days. We'll have an update in next month's newsletter.
Click here to learn more about the Pipevine, the larval host for the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly.
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Day 1: Freshly laid eggs laid on Pipevine,
15-minutes old |
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Day 5: Note the black dot in each egg
is the developing caterpillar |
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Day 6: Caterpillars emerging from eggs.
Note unhatched eggs and collapsed yellow egg shells. |
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Day 7: Caterpillars less than one day old.
Note the slightly larger caterpillar which likely hatched earlier than the rest. |
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| Another group of Pipeline Swallowtail caterpillars emerging from eggs. |
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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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| Sachem (male) on Red Clover |
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| Thorn-Mimic Leafhopper on a Redbud |
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Spangled Skimmer (female).
Note black wingtips and split white and black stigmata |
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| Long-horned Flower beetle, female (Strangalia famelica solitaria) |
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| Great Spangled Fritillary |
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| Female Zabulon on Poison Ivy |
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Giving to Support Our Local Mission
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As you plan your yearly charitable giving, please consider supporting the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Wild Ones. Your membership dues cover only a portion of our annual operating expenses. The remainder comes from program admission fees and tax-deductible donations.
You may choose to direct your donation for one of three purposes:
SCHOLARSHIPS
Educational Scholarships are used to pay for program admission fees for people who cannot afford to pay. Examples of programs this donation supports are the annual native plant symposium and special speaker events.
EDUCATIONAL SPEAKERS
Tennessee Valley Wild Ones searches across the region and country for excellent speakers on a variety of topics, from pollinator health to landscape design. You can help us continue to offer high quality programming and help reduce the event admission fees we charge by contributing to the Speakers Fund.
GENERAL FUND
If you would like us to use your gift to support whatever is our greatest need, you may use this general fund option.
Thanks for your generosity!
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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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