Gift & Book Shop
The Totten Center houses a small shop offering a variety of gardening, natural history, botany, and children's books for sale, as well as gift items such as jewelry, T-shirts, garden fairies, note cards, and fine art prints.
Books
Among the many books we offer are several unique titles published by the Botanical Garden Foundation, the Garden's membership-based support organization:
- Mary Coker Joslin's William Chambers Coker, Passionate Botanist tells the story of William Coker's lifelong interest in plants and his founding of the now historic Coker Arboretum on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's campus. The 197-page book is illustrated with historic photographs and delightful illustrations rendered by Sandra Brooks-Mathers.
- A Haven in the Heart of Chapel Hill: Artists Celebrate the Coker Arboretum (2004), is a feast for the eye. A tribute to the first 100 years of the Coker Arboretum, it includes stories about the Arboretum's evolution and descriptions of its natural history. These come alive amid historical photographs and color reproductions of fourteen area artists' renderings of Arboretum scenes and botanical specimens.
- Chapel Hill and Elisha Mitchell the Botanist (1996) tells the hitherto unknown story of the nineteenth-century geologist's "botanizing" during his early decades in Chapel Hill at the University of North Carolina. This well-documented study will be of interest to students of early American natural history as well as those curious about the foundations of the science curriculum at the University of North Carolina.
To order any of these titles from the Botanical Garden Gift Shop, please fill out the Book Order Form [PDF] and mail it to us.
An important reference available through the Botanical Garden Foundation is the CD ROM Synthesis of the North American Flora [PDF] by John T. Kartesz and Christopher A. Meacham. This much expanded and updated digital version of Kartesz's A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland, Second Edition (Timber Press, 1994) is a valuable reference tool for taxonomists and biologists. Download a 1 MB demonstration version of the Synthesis [EXE]. John Kartesz, author of all scientific data in the Synthesis, is Director of the Biota of North America Program (BONAP) of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Christopher A. Meacham, the author of the Synthesis software program, is Research Associate in the Jepson Herbarium of the University of California at Berkeley.
Educational Videos
Educational videos co-produced by the North Carolina Botanical Garden and Laurel Hill Press of Chapel Hill are sold in the gift shop. These "Take a Closer Look" videos are an excellent resource for teachers, environmental educators, naturalists, and anyone interested in the natural world. For information on ordering by mail, see the sidebar at right.
Fire and the Longleaf (1999)
12 minutes. Winner of a Silver Telly and a Videographer Award of Excellence
"Fire and the Longleaf" explores the nature of the longleaf pine savanna and its amazing stories of biodiversity, interdependence, and dependence on fire. Special video footage of an annual controlled burn of the Botanical Garden's Coastal Plain Habitat helps the viewer understand the special relationship between fire and species diversity. Viewers also learn of the importance of taking responsibility as stewards of our natural habitats. Narrated by 14-year-old Cristina Woods, "Fire and the Longleaf" is specifically targeted for the 4th and 5th-grade Curriculum in Ecology, though the story is readily understood by younger students and is sophisticated enough to interest older students and adults as well.
Plants and the Cherokee (2001)
26 minutes
Produced in partnership with the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, "Plants and the Cherokee" tells the story of the relationship between the Cherokee and the plants that are a part of their world. Viewers learn that the Cherokee have a cultural heritage that is based on the natural world, and discover that they believe that life is a circle and that everything in creation is part of this great circle of life. Viewers "take a closer look" at seven plants: dogwood, souchan, yellowroot, river cane, poplar, sassafras, and ramps. Exquisite videography, the musical sounds of nature and people, some spoken words from the Cherokee language, and the narrative voice of young Cristina Woods make this video a rich experience indeed. We recommend it to teachers, students of all ages, and anyone interested in native plants and their uses.
Fine Art Prints
"Myrtles on Myrtle," a painting by Dot Wilbur-Brooks.
In celebration of Dot Wilbur-Brooks' 30-plus years with the North Carolina Botanical Garden staff, we are offering a limited-edition print of her December 2004 watercolor portrait: "Myrtles on Myrtle."
The original 16-by-20-inch painting features the yellow-rumped or myrtle warbler (Dendroica coronata), a year-round resident in North Carolina, and our common wax-myrtle, Morella cerifera (Myrica cerifera), a shrub found throughout the eastern half of the state.
The prints were produced by Artful Color of Apex, NC, from a high-resolution scan of Dot Wilbur-Brooks's original watercolor painting. The print technology, known as giclee (gee-CLAY), uses a professional inkjet printer, archival inks, and advanced color modeling software to make precision reproductions of fine art on museum-quality, acid-free, 100% cotton paper.
Please call 919-962-0522 or stop by the Garden to find out about availability and price. We hope to be able to offer prints of other work by some of our favorite local artists in the future.
Last updated by Laura Cotterman on January 04, 2006 at 01:45:13 pm.
