By Chapter Chairs reporting for Native Plant News Spring 2026
Browse these pictures and see what we’ve been doing. Holiday parties, seed workshops, lectures, plant rescues, and creating a pollinator waystation. More adventures are in the works. We hope to see you soon!
Margaret Reid (Triangle) Chapter
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Margaret Reid Chapter.
During late fall walks at Raven Rock State Park and Little River County Park, Margaret Reid Chapter members considered connections between geology, hydrology, topography, storms, and land use history on the vegetation we encountered. We learned about regenerative agricultural programs at Wake County’s new Beech Bluff Park and swapped seeds, plants, along with good food and company at our annual holiday party. In January we planted seeds at three winter-sowing workshops and learned about a native pollinator meadow the State has planted in front of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources headquarters in downtown Raleigh. And we continue to remove invasives along Black Creek Greenway in Cary and at the Reid Wildflower garden.
Oconee Bell Chapter
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Oconee Bell Chapter activities included a seed collection workshop about invasive versus native plants and how to identify them, and how to distinguish invasive non-native multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) and Native Swamp Rose (Rosa palustris). Seeds were gathered from: 1) Wild blue indigo (Baptisia australis). Photo by Bettina Darveaux; 2) Goldenrods (Solidago altissima, S. speciosa, and others). Photo by Larry Mellicamp; 3) Foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis). Photo by Will Stuart); 4) Swamp rose (Rosa palustris). Photo by C. Paynte; 5) New York Aster (Symphyotrichum sp.). Photo by Lisa Gould; 6) Wild senna (Senna hebecarpa). Photo by Anita Gould; 7) Appalachian sunflower (Helianthus atroruben). Photo by Will Stuart; 8) Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis). Photo by Annkatrin Rose, and 9). Mountain-mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum and P. tenuifolium). Photo by Larry Mellicamp. Oconee Bell Chapter members will collaborate with others to create a Certified Pollinator Waystation near a Cashiers Chamber of Commerce hillside damaged during Hurricane Helene, after it is stabilized.
Southeast Coastal Chapter
Southeast Coastal Chapter. In November of 2025, members of the SE Coastal Chapter joined others in rescuing Venus Flytraps in Boiling Springs NC. The Flytrap location was going to be developed. They were moved to a conservation location that was safe from development.
Southern Piedmont Chapter
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Southern Piedmont Chapter had a seed share and social in December and in January, a volunteer workday of sorting and packing seeds for Reedy Creek Nature Center seed library, followed the next day by a lecture on protecting waterways presented by people from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, a joint city-county entity focused on pollution prevention, flood control, and stream restoration for creeks and rivers.
Triad Chapter
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Triad Chapter. Every year, volunteers from several NCNPS chapters staff a booth that has become increasingly popular among attendees at the NC Nursery & Landscape Association Green & Growin’ trade show in Greensboro. The NCNPS booth is ably organized by Diane Laslie, a Triad Chapter member and treasurer of the Society itself. Diane keeps the booth current with pamphlets to distribute, information charts, and knowledgeable volunteers to answer native plant questions.
Uwharrie Chapter
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Uwharrie Chapter. Work on the Badin Museum Native Garden project began in January, with Kelli Isenhour and Karen Aumen coordinating the effort. The January chapter meeting was held at the Farm Bureau Livestock Arena on the 13th. Andy Walker, NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources Environmental Specialist and Chris Liolia, North Carolina Botanical Gardens Curator of Habitat Gardens presented “Spring Ephemerals.” In July, Mark Warren will talk on “The Forest’s Gifts of Food, Medicine and Craft as Practiced by the Native Americans.”