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Most gardening seminars these days are about the same old topics; what plants to plant, how to grow them, and what pesticides they require to keep them alive. Much of the information is redundant and often not practical or sustainable. There just aren’t that many conferences that seem to make a difference any more. After speaking at over 1,000 programs and attending many more, it’s hard to make myself attend many lectures. But luckily a few come along that truly make a difference. This year’s Lone Star Regional Native Plant Conference is one of them.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s being held in the beautiful Pineywoods of East Texas on the Stephen F. Austin State University Campus in Nacogdoches. The conference begins with registration on June 2 and ends with dinner and a Forensic Botany lecture by botanist Barney Lipscomb on June 5. Packed between the two are a wide variety of tours, lectures, and workshops.
The 12 tours available include everything from bird watching and deer breeding to sensitive sites home to pyramid magnolias and pitcher plants. The workshops offered are Graminoid Identification, Propagation, Digital Photography, Floral Arranging with Natives, and Medicinal Plants. The dozen lectures cover a range of topics like Green Roofs, Landscape Design, Gulf Coast Bogs, New Varieties of Native Plants, and Invasive Species, by a number of well known speakers including Scott Odgen, Heidi Sheesley, Paul Cox, and Dave Creech.
The beautiful SFA campus is home to the Mast Arboretum, the Ruby Mize Azalea Garden, as well as the 40-acre Pineywoods Native Plant Center.
Mark your calendar and go to http://arboretum.sfasu.edu for the registration and the conference agenda. For more information contact Dawn Stover at 936-468-4404 or dparish@sfasu.edu
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: Greg Grant
