Archive for 2016
Here Come the Bryophytes!
All of a sudden, mosses, liverworts, and friends are on a minor upswing in popularity. That thin green mat cushioning your feet and plastering tree trunks, that lowly layer of who-knows-what, is now more popular with the botanist and gardener than ever; it has spawned new field guides, classes, and restoration projects, as well as…
Read MoreTrout Lillies and Trouts Signal Spring!
I am a gardener and an angler. In the spring, these two passions vie for my attention simultaneously because gardens and trout streams wake up from winter at around the same moment. Just as warming ground stimulates seeds to germinate, bulbs to flower and trees to leaf out and bloom, warming activity on a trout…
Read MorePost-Wild Planting Solutions
We may be planting in a post-wild world, but all the things we love about nature and the natural world are still the things we need and should be planting in our landscapes today. Thomas Rainer spoke to a full house Sunday at the Manassas Community Center, delivering a message that spoke right to the…
Read MoreBig Tree Hunt
The College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech is the creator of the Virginia Big Tree Program, and the New River Chapter recently took a field trip to learn more about it. The purpose of the program is to find and record the biggest examples of many species of trees in Virginia. Measurements…
Read MoreWetlands
I cringe when the word ”Improve”, or “Improvement” is used about land. It’s applied, of course, to describe the process that adapts land for human uses such as farming or construction. This isn’t improvement in any conventional sense of the word. In the 500 or so year history of European use of American land, the…
Read MoreA New Native Plant Mini Series on YouTube
Introducing a new series of videos! These are truly Mini in length, but mighty in content; each featuring one or two native plants at a time. Plant characteristics, faunal associations, and uses in the home landscape are covered. We think you will love these informative little doses of native love! The producer, a member of…
Read MoreGetting Rid of Japanese Barberry: Why and How
Japanese barberry, (Berberis thunbergi), arrives in the woods by birds eating the fruits in winter and pooping/planting them. It can grow in full shade and established woods. Nobody, (especially not deer), eats the leaves or the prickly twigs. It can root where branches touch the ground and where seeds are dropped in place to make…
Read MoreVNPS 2016: Full Steam Ahead!
We have a serious commitment to a lofty Mission Statement, we better be going full steam ahead! For those who would like a short version, our mission statement pretty much says we’re tryin’ to save the world. As in: protect and preserve native plants and their habitats discourage and combat practices that endanger or destroy…
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