7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m., The Great Debate
This debate focuses on revisiting the philosophies of “Native Plants in the Landscape” for which the Conference was created back in the 1980’s. The moderated debate will include a panel of seven commentators with diverse experience and knowledge in landscape design and esthetics, ecology, horticulture practice, nursery management, sustainability, and economics.
The purposes of the debate are to provide detailed perspectives about landscaping and land use philosophy and practice and offer ideas, ideals, and possible goals for the future.
Panelist include Doug Tallamy, Gregg Tepper, Sam Rogers, Amy Lawton-Rauh, Steve Sanchez and Johnny Randall. See page 25 for the script of this debate.
Doug Tallamy is professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. His 2007 book, Bringing Nature Home, is a masterwork in conservation ecology that focuses on interrelationships that are vital to the success of created and natural landscapes. His diverse research work includes the study of the important roles of Lepidopteran species in maintaining healthy native community food chains.
Gregg Tepper is the woods path gardener at Mt. Cuba Center in Greenville, Delaware, where he maintains a three-acre area featuring over 390 taxa of native plants. His interests include rare and unusual forms of native plants with special focus liliums, ferns, trilliums, and members of the Ericacae. Gregg has been gardening avidly with wildflowers for over 25 years.
Sam Rogers is a Registered Landscape Architect and Associate Professor in the University of Tennessee’s Department of Plant Sciences. His interests include ecologically based landscape design, community greenways, and habitat restoration. He is a founding partner of Environmental Landscape Design Associates, a landscape architectural practice with an emphasis on sustainable landscape design, including the conservation, integration, and restoration of native plant communities. As a proponent of the increased understanding of native plants in landscape design, he established and teaches ‘Native Plants in the Landscape’ to serve the undergraduates in ‘Landscape Design’ and the graduate students in the newly established Master of Landscape Architecture program at UT.
Stephen A. Sanchez, a registered landscape architect with Hughes, Good, O'Leary and Ryan, Inc., specializes in wetland delineation and mitigation, stormwater management issues, and planting design. A graduate of Louisiana State University with a BLA, Sanchez emphasizes successful design through the use of proper plant materials, innovative planting techniques, and creative solutions to urban restrictions. He has served as landscape architect/environmental planner on a number of notable projects in Georgia and as project manager on an 850-room hotel project in China.
Dr. Amy Lawton-Rauh is an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences at Clemson University. She received a Ph.D. in Genetics at North carolina State University in 2003.Her work focuses on evolution at the population level: empirical divergence population genetics of naturally-distributed plant species. Research in the Lawton-Rauh lab focuses on mechanisms underlying genetic divergence in populations. Investigations involve the interplay of effective population size, allele sharing among populations and species, and linkage disequilibrium by taking an empirical approach in natural plant populations.
Johnny Randall is the Assistant Director for Natural Areas and Conservation Programs at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill and an Adjunct Faculty member in the UNC-CH Ecology Curriculum.
Thursday Morning General Session, 8:00 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
Keynote Presentation: Doug Tallamy
9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m., Bringing Nature Home with Doug Tallamy
With the accelerating pace of development and subsequent habitat destruction, the pressures on wildlife populations are greater than they have ever been before. Fortunately there is still time to reverse this alarming trend, and gardeners have the power to make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity. There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. When native plant species disappear or are replaced by alien exotics, the insects disappear, thus impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. By favoring native plants, gardeners can provide a welcoming environment for wildlife of all kinds. Gardeners everywhere can make a difference.
Doug Tallamy is professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. His 2007 book, Bringing Nature Home, is a masterwork in conservation ecology that focuses on interrelationships that are vital to the success of created and natural landscapes. His diverse research work includes the study of the important roles of Lepidopteran species in maintaining healthy native community food chains.
10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m., LandScope with Milo Pyne
LandScope America http://www.landscope.org is the conservation guide to America's natural places. The beta version is live and ready for you to explore. It features interactive maps, photos and stories about our environment and its conservation. LandScope America is a collaboration between NatureServe and the National Geographic Society. This program will feature a live exploration of some of the features of LandScope.org.
Milo Pyne is a native of Durham, and works as the senior regional ecologist in the Southeastern US office of NatureServe. He obtained a BS degree in botany from N.C. State University in 1991, and served as Natural Heritage Botanist for the Tennessee Division of Natural Heritage from 1993 to 1996. He is responsible for maintenance and implementation of the U.S. National Vegetation Classification and NatureServe Ecological Systems Classification in the southeast region, and was an advisor to the Tennessee Native Plant Society team that authored Wildflowers Of Tennessee, The Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians. Some of his other interests include local land conservation issues, natural landscape gardening, and the ecology of glade, barren, and prairie-related vegetation in the southeast. Milo has also been a board member of the Eno River Association since 1996.
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Native Hollies with Gil Nelson
About 20 species of hollies are native to the eastern United States, nearly all of which have found favor with gardeners and landscapers. Hollies are the quintessential four season plants, with both deciduous and evergreen species widely planted in the southeast. This talk will highlight the more important native hollies, with notes on their ecology, biology, and cultivation.
Gil Nelson is an author, botanist, and coordinator of the Deep South Plant Specimen Imaging Project at the Godfrey Herbarium at Florida State University, an NSF-funded initiative. His twelfth book, which focuses on native plants for southern gardens, is scheduled for release in early 2010. He is currently preparing two articles on native hollies to appear in the fall issues of American Gardener.
Thursday Evening General Session
7:30 p.m.-8:45 p.m., Native Plant Sourcing Panel Discussion with Dick Bir, Cathy Davis, and Mike Berkley
Native Plant Sourcing Panel Script
The following is a preliminary script for the panel discussion. It will be edited for content before the conference. Conference participants are invited to suggest script changes before the conference. Please contact Tom Goforth at tgoforth@innova.net.
1. In obtaining native plants for resale, for landscaping projects, or for garden additions, what methods do you use that are most successful?
2. Are native plants competitively priced in comparison with non-natives such as annuals and non-hardy perennials? Is native plant pricing affordable for a wide range of customers?
3. Compare the popularity of pure native species and native plant cultivars.
4. Are regional genotype native species readily available for purchase in most regions?
5. Is native plant demand increasing, and is supply also increasing?
6. Are some native plants avoided in landscaping and gardening because of ecological narrowness or the difficulty of developing appropriate ecological conditions in landscaping?
7. Do some nursery customers or landscaping clients request non-native plants because of their lack of knowledge of native plants?
8. Is the viability of planted native species lower, about the same, or higher than comparable non-native species.
9. Do some traditional non-native landscaping plants have cultivation advantages because of longer cultivation history?
10. Are some desirable and rare native plants nearly impossible to obtain? If so, how could those plants become more available?
11. Are native plant seed banks readily accessible, and are they significant resources?
12. What methods would you suggest for increasing native plant availability?
Friday Morning Poster Session 8:45 a.m.-9:45 a.m.
Poster Presenters TBA
Friday Afternoon General Session
1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Dynamic Connections in Soils: Rocks, Weathering, Microorganisms, Organic Matter and Nutrients with Yuji Arai
This session will be a comprehensive view of healthy soil dynamics and the importance of the processes of soil component connections and nutrient creation and cycling. Soil organic and inorganic relationships compose microscopic communities of vast complexity and interdependence that constantly create and recycle organic and mineral compounds. One square meter of rich A horizon soil nurtures billions of diverse protozoa, bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, algae, and other micro-organisms that are essential to the health of higher plants and animals.
Dr. Yuji Arai is an assistant professor of environmental soil chemistry in the Department of Entomology, Soils, and Plant Sciences at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Delaware in 2002. His major research interest in environmental soil chemistry is to understand the predominant and fundamental chemical reactions and mechanisms of nutrients, metal(loid)s and radionuclides at the mineral-water interface and in soils. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate students at Clemson.
Saturday Morning General Session
9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Unintelligent Design in Plant Reproduction with Robert Wyatt
The latest incarnation of creationism in the United States is “intelligent design,” which posits that plants and animals are so perfectly adapted that a designer, presumably the god of Christianity, must have been involved. This view is readily debunked by anyone who has paid close attention to the reproductive features of plants, which show the full range from elegant mechanisms to Rube Goldberg contraptions. Known evolutionary processes are capable of explaining even the most complex adaptations of plants for reproduction, including coevolved mutualisms.
Dr. Robert Wyatt obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his doctorate from Duke University, both in botany. He taught for two years at Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Georgia, where he was a professor of botany and ecology for more than 20 years and still retains an adjunct appointment. From 1999 to 2005 Dr. Wyatt was the executive director of the Highlands Biological Station, an interinstitutional center of the University of North Carolina. He has won numerous awards for teaching and research, including a Guggenheim Fellowship that enabled him to produce a book entitled Ecology and Evolution of Plant Reproduction. He has trained more than 40 graduate students, received more than a million dollars in research grants, and published more than 150 scientific papers.
Friday Morning Concurrent Sessions 1: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
A. Mosses are Native Plants Too with Ken McFarland
Bryophytes, the mosses, liverworts and hornworts, are probably the least understood, ignored and underappreciated of all the plant groups. “What are they good for” and “how do I get rid of them” are the commonly asked questions. Even though bryophytes are not always appreciated in our artificial landscapes, they are a part of the diverse array of organisms which form a complex matrix of plants, animals, protists, fungi and bacteria competing for space and resources in what we call the natural world. This presentation attempts to demystify these native plants. Learn about their natural and cultural history, the unique bryoflora of the Southern Appalachians, and their place in your landscape.
Kenneth McFarland, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Division of Biology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. Has conducted field workshops at the Cullowhee Conference for the past several years on mosses and liverworts in your backyard. His research interests are morphology, taxonomy, and ecology of bryophytes. He has conducted research in the Southern Appalachians, and mountain ranges of the western U.S., Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.
B. Permaculture: A Sustainable Living Methodology for the Home, Garden, And Community with Will Hooker
At the level of personal decision-making, many people are becoming aware of the impact of their choices on the health of the environment, and are searching for more environmentally friendly ways of meeting their needs. At its simplest level, permaculture means “permanent culture” and involves “consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding food, fiber, and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings and the ways in which they organize themselves are central to permaculture.” (David Holmgren, founder of permaculture.) In this session the basic principles of permaculture will be described, and one residential setting that is using these principles to evolve the five major physical systems of shelter, food, energy, resource management (wastes), and water will be illustrated.
Professor Will Hooker has been a registered landscape architect in NC for 35 years, has been an instructor in the Landscape Design Option in the Department of Horticulture at NC State University for 30 years, and has been a certified Permaculture Designer and teacher for 15 years. He is also known regionally for his whimsical and ephemeral sculptures made primarily of bamboo. While understanding the fundamentals of the 'natives only' movement (and disdaining exotic ornamentals that are only beautiful or merely unique), Prof. Hooker believes that there is a larger issue to be considered surrounding plant choices. With the peak oil crisis, the local foods movement, and the changes looming as a result of our inevitably restructured economic paradigms, he is instead an advocate for the inclusion of useful plants in the landscapes of our homes, schools, businesses, and towns.
C. Student/Young Professionals Sessions
C-1. Relationships of North American Dryopteris with Emily Butler
The fern genus Dryopteris (Dryopteridaceae) has approximately 225 species worldwide, with thirteen species in North America. Dryopteris are ubiquitous and charismatic members of the fern flora wherever they are found, and they vary widely in morphology and habitat. In North America, these species hybridize readily and form reticulate histories, which are common among ferns, but poorly understood. To date, North American Dryopteris have been studied using only morphological characters to unravel these histories and determine relationships. The current research employs chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequencing to resolve patterns of speciation among these taxa. Results may serve as a model for investigating the evolution of other North American fern genera.
Emily Butler is a second-year Ph.D. student in botany at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her Ph.D. dissertation work involves developing a detailed morphological and genetic taxonomy of the genus Dryopteris in North America.
C-2. Meadow Makers in the City Park, New Orleans with Marc Pastorek
Meadow Makers acted as a consultant on a 26-acre Coastal Prairie reconstruction in the 1500-acre City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. The park was flooded with six feet of water for three weeks after Hurricane Katrina. A prescription for invasive species has been written and contracted. Seed collection will begin in mid-April, 2009 from the Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society restoration site and some remaining prairie remnants. Seeding of some 240 species of herbs and grasses will occur in November 2009. Approximately 500 pounds of seed will be sown. Pathways and birding blinds will enhance access to wildlife. Time lapse cameras will be installed to track progression of the project with web access.
Marc Pastorek is one of the principal proprietors of Meadowmakers, that is a corporation specializing in design, restoration, reconstruction, and management of native ecosystems in Mississippi and Louisiana. Meadowmakers provide problem solving for individuals, contractors, and landscape architects interested in successfully incorporation native habitats into the landscape. Our seed products and methods are specifically designed to work in the harshest of environmental conditions.
Session 1
C-3, Integrating Sustainability into the Residential Landscape presented by Erik J. Healy
Other authors are: Renee K. Byrd, Mary T. Haque, and Karl Muzii.
Recent and projected shortages of natural resources such as coal, oil, and water have brought about a change to the traditional American home landscape. In the past, the primary purpose of residential landscapes was to be aesthetically pleasing, but now Americans want their landscape to be productive as well as beautiful.<>With this in mind, the horticulture 461 class, Problems in Landscape Design, at Clemson University undertook a 25 acre residential design project. The homeowners’ desired a design that would allow their landscape to be productive, functional, and sustainable without the sacrifice of aesthetics. The final design features placement of plants for maximum energy efficiency, a kids play area, native plants, an outdoor kitchen and entertainment area, organic vegetable garden, pool, rain collection and reuse system, and wind turbine. The design presented will serve as model for sustainable design featuring concepts that are adaptable to any residential or commercial site.
Erik Healy is a junior in Horticulture at Clemson University. Renee K. Byrd, Mary T. Haque, and Karl Muzzi are also students in the Department of Horticulture at Clemson.
Friday Morning Concurrent Sessions 2: 11:15 a.m.-12:15 a.m.
D. “Wide Open Spaces” for Monarch Butterflies with Ina Warren
This lively, multi-media presentation will cover many aspects of monarch biology - life cycle, milkweeds, fall tagging, annual migration - and some of the habitat challenges faced in both their summer breeding grounds and the over wintering areas in Mexico and central California. Locally native milkweed seed will be provided for free to participants.
Ina Waldrop Warren is a jubilant naturalist, lecturer, and certified environmental educator from Brevard and lives everyday in complete awe of the natural world. Her passion for volunteerism led her to serve twenty years on the NC Bartram Trail Society Board, and has been a frequent presenter at NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching, NC Botanical Garden workshops and various conservation groups in the region. Warren is author of two books: The Monarch and Milkweed Almanac - an eclectic, 365-page collection of curious monarch facts that is seasoned with a liberal dose of humor. Care and Feeding of the Natural Rituals of our Lives is a set of nature meditations based loosely on the Revised Common Lectionary.
E. Make a Presentation Poster with Stribling Stuber
If you're interested in communicating your ideas and philosophies, plans, current projects, or experiences to the entire Cullowhee Conference audience, learn how to create a 30” x 40” presentation poster during this session. The session will focus on compiling a photograph and text collection of poster content material, creating an attractive layout design for the material, and composing a poster using a Microsoft Power Point template and digital photo editing software that typically is included in a digital camera purchase. As an option, participants can download a Power Point poster template from the conference website and bring a laptop computer to the session.
Stribling Stuber is an ecologist-in-training, currently hopping from one field research job to another. She is presently enjoying vegetation sampling in the Missouri Ozark Mountains with the Missouri Department of Conservation. She has also spent a couple of years in the longleaf pine forests of Georgia, getting to know the plants down there. She is looking forward to returning to the beautiful Appalachians for her second Cullowhee Conference.
F. Ramsey Creek Preserve with Billy Campbell
Memorial Ecosystems Inc. opened Ramsey Creek preserve in 1996, the first “green cemetery” in the United States. The preserve was formed to harness the funeral industry for land protection and restoration, to fund non-profits, education, the arts and scientific research, and to provide a less expensive and more meaningful burial option.
Our main focus is to develop multi-functional memorial nature preserves that we create with the cooperation and assistance of non-profit organizations. Through becoming members of the preserve during life, and choosing burial in the preserve after, our clients leave a permanent legacy for their families, their communities and the natural world.
Billy and Kimberly Campbell are the proprietors of Ramsey Creek Preserve that is located in western South Carolina near Westminster.
Friday Afternoon Concurrent Sessions 3: 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
G. Miracle Grow for Young Minds: Nature as a Teacher! with Ann Kungle
Like putting a bit of fertilizer on plants yields magnificent results…when teachers infuse the out-of-doors into students’ learning, incredible things happen to achievement. And amazingly, kids begin to bloom where they are planted – to question, laugh, and recover a sense of wonder. Learn how T.R.E.E.’s unique outdoor classroom is fertilizing New Orlean’s at-risk students.
Ann Kungel joined T.R.E.E. in 2002 and is Assistant Director and Senior Staff Educator for T.R.E.E.'s programs. Prior to coming to T.R.E.E., Ann taught for six years for the Archdiocese and beginning in 1994, developed and implemented innovative tutoring programs serving students in both St. Tammany and Orleans Parishes. Ann holds a Masters degree in curriculum and instruction and is certified in adult education.
H. Ground Covers for Slopes with Terry Dalton
Discover new ideas while using a unique plant pallet as we examine the use of native ground covers for slopes. Learn different planting methods and maintenance options as we consider using various plant species to counter weed pressure, prevent erosion, and add beauty and form to the landscape.
Terry Dalton is the Sustainable Landscape Curator at the North Carolina Arboretum where he has been employed for the past 14 years. His duties include invasive plant species removal, conversion of turf strips back to natural areas, and maintenance of all borders between natural and formal areas. He took care of the grounds at the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa from 1989-1995 and graduated from NC State University in 1981 with a BS degree in Forestry.
Student/Young Professionals Sessions:
I-1. Conversion of a Fescue Field to Native Warm Season Grasses and Forbs in Mason Farm Biological Reserve, Chapel Hill, NC with JC Poythress
Mason Farm Biological Reserve consists of a combination of old-field successional communities and mixed hardwood forests. Invasive exotics are a problem in some areas of the reserve, and one field was dominated by Festuca arundinacea and Lespedeza cuneata. In the spring of 2008, the field was sprayed with glyphosate (Round Up) to kill the fescue and later with triclopyr (Garlon 4) to kill the lespedeza. Native grass and forb species grown from seed collected on local roadsides were planted in cleared sections of the field. Other areas of the field were cleared, but not planted to allow native species occurring in adjacent fields to colonize. One season later, the field consisted of a community comprised mostly of native species, the majority of which colonized naturally from the pre-existing seed bank. The species planted in the field will be monitored in future seasons to assess their spread and thereby judge the success of their establishment. The results of this project are useful to conservationists interested in rehabilitating native grasslands without purchasing large quantities of seed to sow directly into fields.
JC Poythress graduated in May from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a major in environmental science. He has been a part time and full time employee of the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill.
I-2. Horticultural Goals of the Knoxville Zoological Gardens with Dana M. Rice
The Knoxville Zoological Gardens currently occupies land that was partially residential, as well as, municipal. From this starting point the zoo has rehabilitated to create an “Appalachian Feel” by using native species for approximately a quarter of its space. One goal of the zoological gardens is to achieve arboretum status through the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council. The master plan for the grounds will highlight several biome habitats and utilize both plants and animals to create a feel of their differences. These areas will have both a diverse geographic perspective and a Tennessee perspective in order to educate the public about our native species and habitats. This presentation will highlight what is currently being done by the Knoxville Zoological Gardens to fulfill a part of its mission statement to “tell the stories of the animals, the plants and the people who make the communities of the earth.”
Dana Rice is an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, pursuing a degree in Landscape Design and Construction. Prior to this, she was employed for nine years as a CAD operator for McGill Associates, a civil engineering firm based in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Her career goals include working with wetland and environmental restoration and designing public spaces with an emphasis on healing and accessibility. Dana has lived in Knoxville, Tennessee for sixteen years.
Friday Afternoon Concurrent Sessions 4 4:15 p.m.-5:15 p.m.
J. Bugs, Bees, Butterflies, and Blossoms: Teaching Teachers to Teach in an Outdoor Classroom with Elyce Rodewald
Learn about a unique partnership between pre-service teachers, elementary education professors, Texas Forest Service, area elementary schools, and a university-based arboretum and how they all benefit from their annual environmental education extravaganza.
Elyce Rodewald is the education coordinator at the Stephen F. Austin State University Mast Arboretum and Pineywoods Native Plant Center in Nacogdoches, TX. She works with SFA Garden Volunteers, students, and staff to bring environmental education programs to people of all ages. Her current passions include dark chocolate, soap making, and restoring endangered white bladderpod (Lesquerella pallida) habitat at her home in San Augustine County, TX.
K. Conservation Easements with Milo Pyne
A “conservation easement” or conservation restriction is the most traditional tool for conserving private land. It is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land to protect its conservation values. While landowners give up some of their rights, they continue to own and use their land, and they can also sell it or pass it on to their heirs. This session will explore the rationale and process for the use of conservation easements in land conservation.
Milo Pyne is a native of Durham, and works as the senior regional ecologist in the Southeastern US office of NatureServe. He obtained a BS degree in botany from N. C. State University in 1991, and served as Natural Heritage Botanist for the Tennessee Division of Natural Heritage from 1993 to 1996. He is responsible for maintenance and implementation of the U.S. National Vegetation Classification and NatureServe Ecological Systems Classification in the southeast region, and was an advisor to the Tennessee Native Plant Society team that authored Wildflowers Of Tennessee, The Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians. Some of his other interests include local land conservation issues, natural landscape gardening, and the ecology of glade, barren, and prairie-related vegetation in the southeast. Milo has also been a board member of the Eno River Association since 1996
L. EcoScapes with Arnold Rutkis
Arnie Rutkis will give an overview of EcoScapes which he designs and creates for The Southern Environmental Center, the role these multipurpose, environmental landscapes play in various communities, and how this may be a model for other communities. Brown fields and unused green space are transformed, and habitat for endangered species is protected with a creative use of land and artistic vision. We can transform our empty spaces into vital productive mini preserves that we can educate in, heal from, cultivate for our table, and reinvigorate our minds.
Arnold Rutkis grew up in Connecticut and has studied art at the University of Connecticut and the University of New Orleans where he receiving an MFA in sculpture. For the past 15 years he has worked as a landscape designer in Birmingham Alabama. He has taught workshops on hypertufa and working with twig structures in the garden and has given talks on using native plants in the garden. For the past six years he has worked with the Southern Environmental Center. He likes hiking, climbing on rocks and golf.
Friday Evening Chat Session (At Norton Hall)
Cullowhee Conference Chat Session with Margie Hunter
Following Friday evening’s picnic, any interested attendee is welcome to return to the Reynolds Hall lobby for an informal and lively group chat session. Topics will include, but are not limited to, conference presentations and current environmental events related to native plants, gardening, ecology, education, etc. This is an excellent opportunity to ask questions, learn from fellow conference attendees, share your insights, and contribute helpful ideas and suggestions.
Margie Hunter is a writer and gardener living in Nashville, TN. She is the author of Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee: The Spirit of Place (2002, University of Tennessee Press) and speaks to various gardening groups and plant societies throughout the Southeast, including Cullowhee. She maintains a native plant Web site at www.gardeningwithnativeplants.com.