Category

Plants

Coming Up, Plants

Native Plant Swap/Sale on Sunday, May 12Featured

9 AM – 2 PM

Where: 39 Courtland Avenue

Parking: On the street, or at the North Star Academy corner of Montford & Courtland

On May 12, we’ll hold our annual Native Plant Swap at Charlotte Caplan’s house on Courtland Avenue, in the Montford neighborhood of Asheville. This is our main fundraiser for the year, so come out to have fun choosing plants for your garden and support BRNN.

Our emphasis is on plants that are native to the Southern Appalachians. We’ll have foamflower, wild ginger, bloodroot, green and gold, bee-balm, mountain mint, joe-pye weed, sweetshrub, pawpaw, and many others. But we’ll accept non-natives too, even houseplants and vegetable starts, as long as they are not considered invasive in NC – see list on https://www.inaturalist.org/guides/2455 . Just a note—vegetable starts can only be swapped for vegetable starts.

No pots? Just save plastic containers from the recycling bin. Medium-sized yoghurt, cottage cheese, and sour cream pots are ideal. Poke a few holes in the bottom and voila! You can cut up a pot up to make labels, too. 

No plants to contribute? No problem. We’ll have a large stock for sale at a modest $4 each.

QUESTIONS? Contact Charlotte at ccaplannc1@juno.com

Past Events, Plants

Foster Nature by Landscaping with Native Plants

with Drew Lathin, owner of Mountain Native Landscape Design

Tuesday,

March 12, 7 p.m.

Landscaping with native plants is critical for building wildlife habitat, reducing resource inputs like excess water and fertilizer, and creating healthy outdoor living areas. Learn why only native plants can do this as well as some design tips to make your native landscape beautiful.

Drew Lathin is the owner of Mountain Native Landscape Design. He is also a certified Blue Ridge Naturalist. Drew is an advocate for re-wilding our urban and suburban landscapes, using native plants in thoughtful ways to bring biological diversity and beauty to our everyday lives.

No RSVP necessary for this event. We look forward to seeing you there!

Past Events, Plants

High Elevation Wildflower Walk

Chilly morning temperatures at 5000 feet did not deter the 28 BRNN members joining our high-elevation wildflower walk on Tuesday May 23rd.  Ably led by guides Lou Dwarshuis, Marilyn Kolton, and Randy Richardson, our gang set off to explore the trails leading from the Pisgah Inn to the site of the former Buck Springs Lodge.  On the sunnier, drier Buck Springs trail we saw the first of the late spring/summer flowers, with highlights including blooming Speckled Wood Lily, Wild Sarsaparilla, Wood Betony, Catawba Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel, Canada Mayflower, Wild Lily of the Valley and Umbrella Leaf.  The shadier, wetter Campground trail yielded the last vestiges of a number of species of  trillium (Painted, Red Wake Robin, Large-flowered, and Vasey’s) including some examples with four and five leaves!  And a small cadre of committed plant nerds stopped along the Parkway on the way home to see the rare Small-flowered Yellow Lady’s Slipper.  
Our group included some keen birders, and they recorded some very interesting bird species, including:

  • Hooded warbler
  • Blue-headed vireo
  • Black & white warbler
  • Indigo bunting
  • Scarlet tanager
  • Northern parula
  • Chestnut-sided warbler
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Downy woodpecker
  • Veery

Selected photos from the outing are provided below:

photo by Nancy Gordon
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