Usual meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at various locations TBA.

Every year, at our chapter’s plant exchange in May, we benefit from, and – I like to think – participate in, the extraordinary liberality of Nature. Annie Dillard, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, asserts that “Nature is, above all, profligate.” Nature, in her endeavor to assure the survival of life, routinely produces an abundance of seeds, suckers, rhizomous roots and vining branches, all of them in fierce competition with each other for space, nutrients, sunlight and water. The vast majority of these plant structures never amount to anything; they die long before reaching a state resembling maturity.

However, if we bring a piece of Nature into our gardens, the plants that we favor have a much better chance at survival. For a garden, by definition, is a place where someone exercises control over available resources. Nature still does her profligate thing in our gardens, giving us an abundance of seedlings and suckers to weed out and to share. This, I assume, accounts for the enjoyment we derive from plant exchanges: we can be generous simply be following Nature’s lead. We can give freely, because what we give is free to us.

Among the plants in my own garden that threaten to overwhelm me every year with their profligacy, Purple Phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida) ranks first. It covers the small woodland behind my house with patches of purple carpeting that last for a month or more from mid-April to mid-May. I know I need to take it out before it drops its seeds, but its survival strategy seems fine-tuned to my infatuation with floral beauty: it gets ready to drop its seeds (millions of them in my garden, I believe) while it is still flowering. How can I possibly rip out all those Phacelias, while they are busy extending the period of spring beauty in my woodland? But then again, how many seedlings can I pot up for a plant exchange next year when they all sprout? And how many more will be left to be weeded out? It’s Nature assuring the survival of one of her species, but for me it’s an annual spring-time dilemma.

-- Beate Popkin, President

All new members and those renewing at the "wilder" or "wildest" level will receive a free DVD of the updated how-to film Wild About Wildflowers.

We have included sources that carry non-native plants as well as natives. We want to support our local businesses, and encourage their promotion of native plants. Shooting Star Nursery, Georgetown, Ky., only 1/2 hour from Lexington, mail-order and local retail, carries a very large selection of plants native to the US. Michler's Gardens and Greenhouses, Lexington, Ky., carries many plants native to the US. Springhouse Gardens, Nicholasville, Ky., off Harrodsburg Rd., 4 miles south of Man-o-War, carries some plants native to the US. Dropseed Nursery, near Louisville, Ky., carries plants of local genotype from Kentucky, southern Indiana and southern Ohio. Highland Moor Nursery, Midway, Ky., carries some natives of local genotype. Mostly a wholesale nursery, but sells retail at some farmer's markets, and may ship to retail customers. Porterbrook Native Plants, Racine, Ohio, 3 hrs. from Lexington, carries plants native to the mid-Appalachian states, will ship upon request. Missouri Wildflower Nursery, mail-order source. Focus is on plants native to Missouri, many of which are also native to Kentucky.

These are some places you can visit in and around Central Kentucky to see native habitat and vegetation. Some are only open by appointment. Others have scheduled guided tours. If you know of another place that belongs on this list, send it to Eve Podet.