The SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 bbgardens.org Antiques at The Gardens | page 8 Centennial Tree Program | Page 2 Central South Native Plant Conference | Back Cover growing forward FRIENDS OF There is always BIRMINGHAM BOTANICAL GARDENS something blooming 2015 BOARD OF DIRECTORS at Birmingham Brian Barr ������������������������������������������������President Beverley Hoyt ��������������������������������President-Elect Botanical Gardens. Hanson Slaughter �����������������������������Past President Scott Walton ���������������������������������������������Treasurer Paul Jones ������������������������������������������������ Secretary Plan your next visit Beverley Hoyt �������������������������������VP Development soon! Elizabeth Broughton �������� VP Gardens & Buildings Charles Goodrich ����������������������Governance Chair Wally Evans ������������������������������������������������� Officer Visit bbgardens.org & Houston Gillespy......................................... Officer check out what’s new At Large: Cathy Adams at The Gardens. Craig Beatty Mary Boehm Chris Boles Emily Bowron Maggie Brooke Clarke Gillespy John Hudson John Hurst Turner Inscoe September Bill Ireland Elizabeth Jernigan Camellias Natalie Kelly Carl Jones Katy Baker Lasker Fall Annuals John Miller John Smith T Herbs Amanda Foshee, Junior Board President Perennials OUR MIssION Roses Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens promotes public knowledge of plants, gardens & the environment; & Salvias receives, raises & administers resources for these purposes. Tropicals (peak) OUR VISION The vision of Birmingham Botanical Gardens is to be one of Vegetables the nation’s preeminent botanical gardens. STAFF MAIN ....................................................... 205.414.3950 Fred Spicer ........................................ Executive Director & CEO October: Stephanie Banks ......................................Chief Financial Officer Dawn Coleman .......................... Education Activities Specialist Azaleas (rebloom) Elizabeth Drewry .............................................................Librarian Blake Ells.................................... Public Relations Coordinator Beautyberries Jean Frey ............................................. Director of Development Ellen Hardy ........................... Education Program Coordinator Camellias Henry Hughes .........................................Director of Education Jason Kirby ....................................Library Assistant & Archivist Andrew B. Krebbs .......... Director of Marketing & Membership Fall Annuals Hope Long ......................................Director of Library Services John Manion ...........................Kaul Wildflower Garden Curator Fall Wildflowers Pam McLeod ..................................Donor Services Coordinator Brooke McMinn.............. Plant Adventures Program Specialist Herbs Drew Rickel .........................................Donor Relations Officer Taylor Steele ............................................Volunteer Coordinator Hollies Ragan Stone .....................................Special Events Coordinator Rona Walters ...............................................Membership Assistant Ornamental Grasses The Garden Dirt is the newsletter of Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The Garden Dirt is published six times a year Salvias to foster awareness & support events, services, & significant programs of Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens. We welcome Tea Olives your comments & address corrections. Please contact: Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens Roses ON THE CovER Editor, Andrew B. Krebbs, director of marketing & membership Kaul Wildflower Garden Curator John Manion 2612 Lane Park Road Birmingham, AL 35223 Vegetables inspects the Tutwiler’s spleenwort, Asplenium tutwilerae. 205.414.3959 or [email protected] The fern is very rare and endemic to Alabama. The bbgardens.org Central South Native Plant Conference focuses on Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens practices a policy of equal opportunity & equal access to services for all persons regardless of race, the importance of native plants and their habitats. See creed, color, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, orientation or sex. Birmingham Botanical Gardens is a facility of Birmingham Park & back cover for details. Recreation Board. The deadline for the Nov/Dec issue is Sept 15. W Dear Friends: ELC Welcome fall and welcome our exciting schedule of fall events! Please read all the details of the Antiques at The Gardens show and sale, Fall Plant Sale, Central South Native Plant Conference and Dirt Dash Fun Run in the pages that follow (or even more online at bbgardens.org). Antiques chairs Emily Bowron and Leah Taylor are making O the tenth year of this special fundraising event even better with the energy and additions they’ve brought. They represent the tip of the volunteer iceberg that makes these events ME reality and that includes all of our plant grower groups, support volunteers and The Gardens’ Junior Board. I’m always humbled and continually inspired by all of them. (And I know I’ve said/written that before but it’s still true!) The landscape projects I wrote about in the previous issue are well underway and we look forward to opening up the new pedestrian entry at the Lawler Gates (at the roundabout on Cahaba Road) and the walk from Lane Park Road very soon. I hope you’ll take advantage of our now-more-walkable neighborhood that offers “One Destination: Two Attractions.” BBG_ST2015_PRT.pdf 1 9/3/2015 2:04:06 PM In early November, we will begin a number of significant renovations to the Garden Center which will continue through late winter. The Strange Auditorium, a real workhorse of a facility for us, will get a complete makeover: I promise you will not SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 at 2 p.m. even recognize it. Also, eight of our restrooms $25 GENERAL ADMISSION will be reworked to achieve full compliance For admission please go to: bbardens.org/southerntales or 205.414.3950 with the Americans With Disabilities Act and LECTURE HALL | BIRMINGHAM BOTANICAL GARDENS to update finishes and fixtures. This important 2612 LANE PARK ROAD | BIRMINGHAM, AL 35223 work and more is being funded by a City of Birmingham voter-approved bond. In the spirit of partnership, The Friends has added a few items to augment the city’s substantial efforts, including an event lighting system in the auditorium, replacement of the ceiling with Dolores Hydock and Bobby Horton and lighting in the caterer’s kitchen and the Sallie Independence Foster lived in a world of high-top addition of a number of automatic exterior shoes, inkwells, and mail carried on horseback. But storyteller Dolores Hydock and musician Bobby door openers (the city will also do one) around Horton have brought her into the 21st century. our first floor. Doors in the Hodges Room Sallie Independence Foster was 12 years old and living and service area will be replaced as well. in Florence, Alabama in 1861 when the Civil War began. She was keeping a diary at the time, and kept A final thought: with temperatures dropping on keeping a diary for 26 years. is performance, based on Sallie’s diaries, papers, and letters from her and fall color slowly coming on, it’s time to brothers o at war, presents a funny, touching, and get back outside with a purpose. Stay calm and uniquely personal look at the life and times that Sallie shared keep gardening! with her paper “dear Companion.” Storyteller Dolores Hydock and music historian Bobby Horton interweave Sallie’s story with camp songs, period favorites, and original tunes to create a poignant, powerful, humorous, See you in The Gardens, and honest picture of a world of innocence turned upside-down. Fred Spicer BBGARDENS.ORG | 205.414.3950 Executive Director & CEO 1 Join our effort to conserve Alabama’s native trees – seeds have already been collected to plant thousands of new trees, but we need your support – future generations will thank you! Our Centennial Tree Program – Growing Alabama’s Future Did you know Alabama is home to 25 plants PMENT that don’t grow naturally anywhere else in the world? And that Alabama ranks 5th in O overall biodiversity and 9th in plant diversity among all states? Sadly, our native plants may not be here for future generations, if we don’t act now, because Alabama ranks 11th EL in the percentage of plant species at risk of extinction. V Birmingham Botanical Gardens is acting E now, protecting Alabama’s native plants through conservation programs like our Centennial Tree program. From 2009-2014, working with our community partners, The Gardens planted D over 1,500 native trees on 15 sites in the Birmingham area, regenerating the urban Centennial Tree Planting at Red Mountain Park forest that has been damaged or lost due to natural aging, storms and development. Two- year survival rates for these trees, planted at schools, in parks like Red Mountain and George Ward Parks, and in natural areas like the eroding banks of Shades Creek and the Cahaba River, has averaged an impressive 80%. Such success can be credited to The Gardens’ experience in growing native plants and our focus on Centennial Trees - venerable native trees, many more than 100 years old, which are the descendants of a regional forest thousands of years old. Christened “Centennial Trees,” they are adapted to local soils, sites and climate and grow naturally in uplands, floodplains and urban pockets. Aesthetically, these native trees are as iconic to the Birmingham landscape as our historic architecture,