Interested in taking a class? Click here to see a complete list of upcoming educational programs.
Drop-In Discoveries: Cicada Symphony
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesWelcome to the Cicada Symphony! Dive into the wild world of cicadas with us. Discover their epic lifecycle from underground dwellers to sky-high singers. Plus, craft your very own paper cicada to take home. Buzz on by for some fun!
Little Sprouts: Hooray for Hummingbirds
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesFor ages 3-5 with a participating caregiver. Zip! Zoom! Slurp! Celebrate the tiny but mighty ruby-throated hummingbird with stories, craft, play, and a garden walk to see if we can spy this fast-flying friend and its favorite flowers.
Blue Wild Indigo at Penny’s Bend
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesThis hike will provide a wonderful opportunity to see rare flora at Penny’s Bend Nature Preserve, owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, and managed by the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Baptisia aberrans is an imperiled species at the state level and survives in only a small number of remnant Piedmont prairie or savanna patches. The Garden’s management practices at Penny’s Bend has favored a variety of prairie and savanna flora.
About 2 miles in length, much of this hike is on primitive trails over uneven terrain, with one short, steep climb up from the river. Wear sturdy hiking footwear and bring insect repellent, water, and a walking stick, if you ever use one.
Drop-In Discoveries: Cicada Symphony
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesWelcome to the Cicada Symphony! Dive into the wild world of cicadas with us. Discover their epic lifecycle from underground dwellers to sky-high singers. Plus, craft your very own paper cicada to take home. Buzz on by for some fun!
Carolina Moonlight Garden Party
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United States“The Best Party in Town!” — Gail Perry, NCBGF Director and gala planning committee member Buy Tickets You are invited to dress in your best floral attire and join us...
Visiting Artist Master Course with Vincent Jeannerot: Longleaf Pine in Watercolor and Pen and Ink
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesIn this three-day workshop, we will explore the beauty of the longleaf pine and learn how to paint it using watercolors. We will start with a tour of the garden to get inspired and choose our own subject. During the workshop, we will focus on painting the leaves of the longleaf pine in watercolor and adding details such as cones in sepia or black pen and ink. You will also learn about cross-hatching techniques in watercolor and pen and ink through several demonstrations.
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden
VirtualA virtual presentation with Camille Dungy, award-winning poet and distinguished professor at Colorado State University. Camille Dungy’s most recent book recounts the role her garden played in her experiences as a university professor, author, wife, and mother, including the challenges of different ecosystems involved in moving to new home sites with the COVID pandemic as backdrop. Her story is rooted in real life events that are both insightful and inspirational.
Lifelong Longleaf Hike: Carvers Creek
The longleaf pine story continues as we explore one of the best examples of a longleaf pine savanna remaining in North Carolina. Venus flytraps, pitcher plants and other carnivorous plants dot the grassy landscape under the dappled shade of longleaf pines in this Nature Conservancy Preserve.
Longleaf Pine Restoration Project Tour with the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina
Lumbee Tribe Cultural CenterVisit a longleaf pine restoration project at the Cultural Center of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina in Pembroke, NC. Learn about history, culture, and future plans. For those interested, you can convene with Kevin at Fuller’s BBQ in Pembroke after the program for additional conversation and community.
Twilight Thursdays
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesEvery Thursday from April 4 to June 13, we’re staying open until 7 p.m. so you can enjoy our display gardens in the evening. Our exhibit hall and Garden Shop...
Botanical Exploration Using Flora Apps
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesSince its initial inception more than 30 years ago, Alan Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern United States has expanded to cover more than 10,000 plant species across 25 states. From printed books to digital PDFs, to a modernized suite of web and mobile apps, the Flora is an ever-evolving suite of tools and products that continue to facilitate and enhance botany across the southeast.
Join Alan and Southeastern Flora team members Michael Lee (Data Scientist, NCBG) and Scott Ward (Research Botanist, NCBG) as they provide an in-depth tour of FloraQuest: Carolinas and Georgia, a new mobile app designed for phone or tablet that helps users identify all wild-growing plants from North Carolina to Georgia. In this program, the flora team will demonstrate how to identify plants in FloraQuest using dichotomous keys, graphic keys, diagnostic photographs, and a botanical glossary. After their presentation, the Flora team will then show how to use botanical characters such as flower color, growth form, geographic location, and flowering month to identify plants in the diverse wildflower beds of the North Carolina Botanical Garden.
Hybrid Lunchbox Talk – From Conflict to Collaboration: How Conservation Partnerships are Helping Save an Imperiled Ecosystem
North Carolina Botanical Garden 100 Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, United StatesThe longleaf pine ecosystem is one of the most biologically diverse in North America, and the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker is one of its most iconic species. In the 1990s, populations of this woodpecker in the NC Sandhills were critically low. The largest population was on Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), but the Army did not want to alter training or land management. Private landowners mistrusted government agencies and were cutting their longleaf rather than see an endangered bird move in. It had the makings of a classic environmental conflict, until some forward-thinking people decided they had more to gain from solving the underlying problem than fighting each other. What resulted was the invention of several key programs that are now used nation-wide, the recovery of the Sandhills population, and a partnership that became a model for how to do collaborative conservation. This talk will discuss longleaf conservation efforts in NC and across the range and will explore how the lessons learned from the Sandhills can be applied to other environmental conflicts. This talk is part of the Saving our Savannas: Stories of the Longleaf Pine exhibition, which explores the history, ecology, and culture of the longleaf pine ecosystem.