Native Plant Society of Texas Big Bend Chapter 2008 Programs

January 5 - Designing Spaces for Outdoor Living

10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,  Marfa Public Library and three Marfa Gardens – Last January we looked at Linda Hedges country garden in Fort Davis. This time around, it’s the very city gardens of Jim Martinez, Dallas/Marfa Landscape Architect.

After 30 years as one of Dallas’ premier landscapers, Jim lost his heart to a hilltop in Marfa and has since built and landscaped a house there for himself as well as designing gardens for many, many Marfa clients.  Now he divides his time between the two cities.

Of Marfa he says, “Ten years a go, I attended an art and architecture seminar at Marfa’s Chinati Foundation. It was a re-affirmation of the interconnection between art, architecture and landscape. Marfa was the perfect place for this seminar.”

And Marfa is the perfect place to see Jim’s gardens. Jim will not only share some secrets but show us how those secrets look on the ground. After his illustrated talk, Jim will lead us on a walking tour of three of the gardens he’s designed in Marfa, all within walking distance of the Marfa library.

Please call One Way in Alpine at 432.837.1117 before Friday, Jan 4 at 4 p.m. to reserve a seat.

Feb. 1 -Arbor Day Celebration – Bonus event!

10 a.m. Friday morning at the Sunshine House, Alpine -

Winter is tree planting time, and who better to be present than Texas Forest Service urban forester Oscar Mestas to talk about Arbor Day and planting native trees as part of the NPSOT re-landscaping of Alpine’s Sunshine House.  Weed tree removals will have been completed earlier in the month by Dennis Treadaway in partnership with the Texas Master Naturalists. 

                There will be children, and Sunshine House folks and tree planting and lunch – oh my!  Please come!

February 16 – Native Plant Propagation

10 a.m. to 12 noon, Patty Manning shows us what to do with all those seeds we’ve been collecting – or would collect if we knew what to do with them! Patty has managed the native plant greenhouses at Sul Ross for several years and has grown many of the plants used to restore habitat at Big Bend National Park, create new landscapes at Sul Ross and even adorn the native gardens of many folks in the Tri-counties.

                There will also be a tour of the SR Cactus Garden – a chance to prepare for the cactus propagation workshop in March.

                AND Patty will have some natives from the greenhouse to sell at the end of the morning.

March 15 – Cactus Propagation Workshop

As part of CDRI’s annual Cactus and Succulent Festival during spring break, NPSOT is working with CDRI to present two workshops:

Cactus Propagation Workshop, 10 a.m. -12 noon, CDRI Greenhouses with cactus greenhouse manager Marc Goff.

Cactus photography workshop with Crystal Allbright, 1 to 4 p.m., Visitor’s Center, Class is limited to 10 participants. Crystal is well-known for her dazzling cactus photos, among photographs of other desert subjects. Some of her work will be on sale in the CDRI shop.

Call Jan Carpenter at CDRI, 432.364.2499 for workshop fees, more information and to register. To learn more about the entire Festival, log on to www.cdri.org. after Feb. 1.

April 5 – Tour of UTEP Museum Gardens, El Paso

A month before they appear in the Tri-counties, the native plants of the Chihuahuan Desert are ready to go in El Paso!  Garden curator, Wynn Anderson, has created gardens outside the University’s Museum that contains at least one of every Chihuahuan Desert native – or so it seems.

Full of examples of plants and imaginative settings for them, you’ll come away with a head full of ideas.

This is one day, but a full day event.  We’ll car pool, leaving Alpine at 9 a.m., arriving in time for lunch at a tiny Italian restaurant near UTEP at 11:30 El Paso time. We’ll tour the gardens from 1 to 3:30 p.m. and then head home, arriving in Alpine around 8 pm Central Time. 

May 3 – Botanizing Red Rock Ranch, Van Horn

Just a few miles outside of Van Horn, Darice McVey’s Red Rock Ranch offers a unique glimpse of Chihuahuan Desert geology and botany - wind carved rock, canyons and rich plant and animal life.  The ranch contains one of the few sites in North America where you can view naturally exposed Precambrian Sandstone dating back billions of years. Native plants and wildlife combine with an original 1880 homestead and a working talc mine to make Red Rock Ranch a one-of-a-kind experience.

              And for the tourist in each of us, there are movie sets constructed for the filming of Lonesome Dove, Dead Man's Walk and Blue Sky.

             This is a half day driving tour – with stops to get out. We’ll car pool, leaving Alpine at 9 a.m., back by 4 p.m. BYO sack lunch as well as water, hats, etc. and cameras.

$20 per person members, $25 per person non-members. There is no maximum, but the ranch has one high clearance vehicle, and we’ll need other high clearance vehicles for each 5 or 6 people.

June 7 - Glass Mountains Ranch –

Hiram and Liz Sibley’s wonderful limestone ranch offers hikes with fossils underfoot, a different “look” from the usual Tri-counties landscape and a visit to their mountain-top ranch house with its 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside where we’ll eat lunch.

                Patty Manning will lead the botanical part of the hike, and Hiram will fill in with stories of the ranch, his childhood on it and other historic and anecdotal info.

                Meet at 9 a.m. at the Hwy 67/90 Triangle outside Alpine to follow Hiram to the ranch. BYO lunch, water, cameras, too and plant books, etc. We’ll be home by 2 p.m.

No meetings July and August

September 27 – Diamond Y Preserve

Nature Conservancy biologist John Karges will lead an interpreted hike to Diamond Y Springs  Preserve. Located about a dozen miles north of Ft. Stockton on Hwy 18, the Preserve protects one of the largest and last remaining cienega systems in West Texas. This preserve provides critically important habitat for two species of rare desert fishes listed as federally endangered species (the Leon Springs pupfish, Cyprinodon bovines) and the Pecos Gambusia, (Gambusia nobilis), the federally threatened, rare, salt-tolerant Pecos (or puzzle) sunflower, four other globally rare plants and a suite of rare aquatic invertebrates.

             All of these creatures depend upon the maintenance and perpetuation of the surface springs, their outflow marshes and watercourses or subirrigated moist soils for survival.

                We’ll carpool, leaving Alpine at 8 a.m., returning mid-afternoon. BYO sack lunch, water, hats, cameras, etc.  Sunflowers will be in bloom!

October 17 – Native Vittles

Happy Hour 5-7 p.m. at One Way Plant Nursery, Alpine. Bring your favorite native foods from mesquite muffins to toasted pecans. NPSOT will buy the wine and Alice will have fall plants.

November 15 – Creating Sustainable Desert Gardens

A one-day symposium in Alpine, exact location TBA, co-sponsored by the Texas Cooperative Extension Service and NPSOT. 

Topics will include soil preparation, plant selection, mulches, rainwater harvesting and drip irrigation systems for beautiful and sustainable desert gardens. 

9 a.m. -12 noon – Presentations and demonstrations; 12 – 1 p.m. lunch provided;

1-5 p.m. - Tour of rainwater harvesting installations and established gardens.

$15 fee for members; $20 fee for non-members

Dec. – No meeting

While every effort is made to adhere to announced schedules, meetings are subject to change.