This is the category for horticulture posts.
We are deeply honored to be the the first-ever recipient of The American Horticultural Society’s new Garden Stewardship Award, which recognizes a public garden that embraces and exemplifies sustainable horticultural practices in design, maintenance, and/or programs. Our horticulture staff incorporate a conservation ethic into every aspect of their work, from plant selection and landscape design…
A summer internship opportunity at Coker Arboretum Note: This internship is open to current students at UNC-Chapel Hill only. Applications due: 2/28/2021 Location: Coker Arboretum Duration: 3 months (approximately mid-May to mid-August 2021) Hours: Full time; typically Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. with a one-hour lunch break Pay: $10.61/hour About the Garden: The North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG)…
American beautyberry Callicarpa americana Once again, we are bending the definition of a wildflower to offer American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) as our 2021 Wildflower of the Year. This deciduous understory shrub is native to woodlands, open forests, and disturbed areas throughout the central and southeastern United States. Beautyberry has pale green leaves along graceful…
The garden may be closed but you can still buy great native plants from our nursery and, in doing so, help support our organization! How to Purchase Plants from NCBG Check out the list of plants that are currently available here. Note that at the top of the spreadsheet there is a link to a…
By Margo MacIntyre, Curator, Coker Arboretum The Coker Arboretum’s corps of volunteers, the Coker Nuts, have been furloughed since March 17, but I never had to experience a pandemic response to know the value of volunteers. Now that I have hours of quiet on Tuesday mornings, I really have the chance to appreciate the…
Marsh-pink Sabatia angularis A stunning biennial in the gentian family (Gentianaceae), marsh-pink (Sabatia angularis) is also known as rose gentian, rose pink, or bitter-bloom. Native to the eastern and southern United States, it can be found growing in low, moist edges of open woods, as well as prairies, roadsides, meadows, and marshes. Perhaps our…
We’re honored to be one of 20 public gardens nationwide selected to create a demonstration garden in the U.S. Botanic Garden’s Gardens Across America exhibit, which runs from now through October 1. A team from our horticulture department traveled up to D.C. last week with a truck full of plants native to the North Carolina…
Narrow-leaf mountain-mint Pycnanthemum tenuifolium This wonderful member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) is native throughout the central and eastern United States and can be found in dry, open rocky woods, prairies, fields, and roadsides. Versatile and easy to grow, this tough little perennial is at home in a variety of conditions from moist to…
by Heather Summer, NCBG Collections Manager I once read that the only difference between a wildflower and a weed is our perspective. Anyone who has noticed a sea of pale purple as they pass a roadside patch of lyre-leaf sage or seen the billowing white waves of frost aster growing in a powerline right-of-way will…
North Carolina’s abundant, diverse, and colorful native wildflowers will teach us many lessons, if we only listen. One of those lessons is that plant species differ in their tolerance to prolonged dry conditions. We can observe this when we notice the kinds of habitats where our native plants grow. For instance, the natural habitat of…