Hybrid Special Presentation – Clover Garden: A Carolinian’s Piedmont Memoir

Between North Carolina’s coastal plain and the Blue Ridge Mountains lies the Piedmont: some 250 linear miles of rolling, long-settled lands covering almost half of the state. Geologically speaking, piedmont regions are found all over the world, but North Carolina's Piedmont is among the largest in the United States, sitting along an environmental crossroads where northern and southern flora and fauna overlap, offering an incredibly rich natural diversity. Inhabited continuously for thousands of years, the state's rural heartland is today home to an increasingly dense population. Yet most who reside in the region's cities, suburbs, and smaller towns still live within reach of red-clay farmland, oak and hickory forests watered by small creeks, and rocky river valleys. These places—as they have been and as they are now—remain essential to the character of life in the South.

Hybrid Lunchbox Talk: The Carolina Parokeet (Paroquet) and relatives: a look at some natural, un-natural, and cultural histories

North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

Early naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries left us with volumes of great plant and animal natural history information based on early explorations of “the New World”. Ironically, they left precious little information about the breeding biology of the Carolina Parakeet. Researchers continue to probe historic documents, and collections, and occasionally make new discoveries. We discovered a set of three eggs in our unarchived holdings at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in 2018, for example. In this program, John will discuss what we know, and don’t know, about this extinct parakeet and relate this to some of the species’ tropical relatives.

Hybrid Lunchbox Talk: The Home Patch

North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

The talk will be covering birds that are frequently seen in spring migration, with particular attention to birds that have been photographed right in the Triangle. The primary birds discussed will be warblers, both resident and migrants.

Darwin Day Lecture: Darwin and the Art of Botany

Join Highlands Biological Station executive director Dr. Jim Costa for an illustrated exploration of Darwin's impact on the world of botany, through the lens of beautiful botanical art.

Charles Darwin is best known for his work on the evolution of animals, but in fact a large part of his contribution to the natural sciences is focused on plants. His observations are crucial to our modern understanding of so much about plant biology, from the amazing pollination process of orchids to plant carnivory to the way that vines climb. Darwin scholar Jim Costa teamed up with botanical artist Bobbi Angell to explore Darwin's fascination with the plant world in their new book Darwin and the Art of Botany: Observations on the Curious World of Plants.

A celebration of Darwin's often overlooked botanical interests, the book spotlights 45 fascinating plants studied by Darwin, each illustrated with beautiful botanical art selected from the Library at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Join us for this talk and come away with a new appreciation of Darwin's creative botanical investigations, the plants he studied, and the ways in which he helped shape our understanding of the world around us.

Hybrid Lunchbox Talk: It’s for the Birds, Bees and Butterflies – How to Create Biodiversity in Your Yard

North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

This presentation will delve into the essentials of transforming your yard into a haven for wildlife. It will guide you through the selection of plants that attract and support birds, bees, and butterflies, explaining the importance of each choice in fostering a thriving ecosystem. Additionally, the presentation will highlight various elements to incorporate into your yard to enhance wildlife habitat, such as bird feeders, water sources, and nesting sites. By the end of the session, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of how to create a biodiverse environment that not only beautifies your space but also supports local wildlife, contributing to the overall health of your community’s ecosystem.

Hybrid Lunchbox Talk: Residential Restoration – Experiments with Piedmont Prairies

North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

Amidst increasing public demand for alternatives to turf grass lawns, and a burgeoning awareness of the historic role grasslands and prairies have played in the ecological fabric of North Carolina, demand for large-scale herbaceous plantings is growing. However, information and precedents from regions north and west of the state (as well as Europe), where climate conditions are not as analogous as one might hope, appear to dominate the practice of prairie-making in North Carolina. Plant height, competitiveness, bloom time, and lifespan is different in North Carolina than it is in states as close as Maryland or Tennessee. Even in our state’s larger metropolitan areas, sustained increases in temperature, especially at night, mean that Piedmont prairies in downtown Raleigh may perform differently than in downtown Roxboro. Additionally, many plants designers commonly use come from places with lower nighttime temperatures and shorter summers, or are early successional plants with short lifespans that disappear after a few years, leaving enthusiasts (or clients) with a very different experience than they paid for. As we work to sustain restored habitat in our urban environments, we must continue to develop large-scale herbaceous plantings that perform functionally and aesthetically in the climate we have, not the climate we want.

Join Durham-based landscape architect, Preston Montague, for a presentation on his experience developing Piedmont prairies in a variety of environments in the rapidly developing Triangle. Preston will share an overview of the role herbaceous plantings play in our urban fabric, as well as successes, failures, and approaches in prairie-making in his practice moving forward.