About Us

The Central Rappahannock Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society represents members in the counties of Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline and Essex and the city of Fredericksburg.

The Central Rappahannock Chapter was chartered on September 10, 2025.  We are honored to revive the previous local Fredericksburg-Area chapter.   

The Central Rappahannock region sits at a unique ecological crossroads, home to a diverse mix of Piedmont and Coastal Plain species, and it is a longstanding hub for environmental education, restoration, and advocacy. We bring together passionate gardeners, conservationists, educators, and everyday nature lovers who believe that the future of our ecosystems depends on the plant choices we make close to home.

Our chapter focuses on three areas:

• Grow – at home, this is everything having to do with growing natives in your home.  83% of the land in Virginia is privately owned – that is an area where individually we can make a difference.  This is garden tours, winter sowing, seed collecting, how to plan a native garden, sources to purchase natives.
• Know – in wild spaces, this is the science of it all, the botany and ecosystems.  This is appreciation of our natural spaces.  This focus area will include education in botany and ecosystems so that we can become a source for information.  It will include field trips to wild places to identify those plants we have learned about.
• Protect – this is advocacy, through partnerships with like-minded organizations, through supporting relevant legislation, through preserving existing wild spaces, to removing the invasives that threaten our native ecosystems

And all that with a smile and with kindness.

We invite you to join us and join in our programs!