Table of Contents
Video: Blossoming
Video: Margaret, Anna, and Annkatrin: collaboration and stewardship are key to our success.
Our Story in Chapters
Video: Catherine, Brett, and Anna: in our backyards and communities we make local impacts that incrementally improve our interconnected world.
Stories of People
Video: Madalyn, Lindsay, and Julie: our lifelong learning pays forward to influence others.
Watch the wonders of plants as they blossom.
Margaret, Anna, and Annkatrin: collaboration and stewardship are key to our success.
Our Story in Chapters
Compiled by Beth Davis with help from chapter leaders across the state, for Native Plant News 75th Anniversary Edition
Catherine, Brett, and Anna: in our backyards and communities we make local impacts that incrementally improve our interconnected world.
Larry T. Mellichamp, the Plantsman of His Time
Founded in 1951 as the North Carolina Wild Flower Preservation Society, the Society began with this mission: To foster appreciation of North Carolina’s native plants. The original name referred to native plants and flowers growing in the wild—not just wildflower species. Early members gathered in home gardens to exchange seeds, cultivation techniques, and practical knowledge about growing native plants.
Within a few years, however, the Society’s focus broadened. Newsletters published between 1951 and 1976 reveal a growing concern for conserving native plants in their natural habitats. Meetings expanded well beyond members’ gardens. During the Society’s first decade, gatherings were held in fifteen counties and included field trips to rare plant populations, scenic natural areas, and public demonstration gardens across the state.
These outings reflected an emerging conservation ethic. Early newsletters featured poetry and botanical illustrations celebrating North Carolina’s flora while encouraging members to protect the landscapes where native plants thrive. Members witnessed remarkable environmental recovery during the 1950s, including restoration of heavily logged slopes along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Following one excursion, the newsletter described hillsides where “thousands of beautiful azalea and rhododendron bushes” flourished under federal protection.
The Society also recognized the important role of the native plant nursery industry. Members toured nurseries such as E. C. Robbins’ operation in Linville, NC, learning propagation techniques while encouraging responsible cultivation that could reduce pressure on wild plant populations.
This balance between gardening and conservation was captured in Helen Hull’s Wild Flowers for Your Garden (1952), later quoted in the Society’s 1966 newsletter: “Wild flower gardening is a very real means of saving the species. Growing them makes us aware of their great beauty and the desirability of keeping them.”
Seventy-five years later, that philosophy still guides the Society. By appreciating native plants both in the wild and in our own gardens, generations of members have helped protect North Carolina’s extraordinary botanical diversity. Their legacy reminds us that stewardship begins with understanding, grows through education, and endures through conservation.
Madalyn, Lindsay, and Julie: our lifelong learning pays forward to influence others.