FALL PLANT SALE, Welcome April, New Classes, and more...
Director's Update October 2018
It's Plant Sale Week!
No, the best time to plant is not the spring, it’s the fall. Planting a shrub or tree in the fall gives newly planted greenery the chance to develop fresh roots over the winter BEFORE it develops new leaves. It amazes me that the spring plant sale is bigger than the fall sale. It should be the other way around. 
This year our plant inventory is as diverse as usual, but we have a few extras that I’m really excited about.

First, we have begun a collaboration with Spotted Dog Farm .

Spotted Dog Farm is a jewelry maker in Asheville that works with plants. We have taken some of our most beautiful plant materials, pressed and dried them, and sent them on to Spotted Dog Farm to be made into jewelry.

You can see the results here! We are thrilled to be able to offer you a piece of the Gardens that you can take with you everywhere .
We're also kicking off our Poinsettia Sale ! That’s right, this year we are taking orders for poinsettias. If you are interested in getting some red and green into your home to make the season more festive then we can help. We will take your poinsettia order at the plant sale and have your plants ready at the very beginning of December.
And finally, remember that if you get a membership to the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens then you can come to our Member’s only day THIS Thursday, October 4 . This is a big deal because often our truly rare plants don’t ever make it to the regular sale on Friday and Saturday. Not only that, members also enjoy a healthy discount on plant materials which differs depending on the membership purchased.  
Welcome April!
Long time garden volunteer April Allan Faucette recently joined our staff as a tour guide. Even in a staff that is as full of energy as ours is, April stands out.

She will be working to help connect these Gardens with various groups across Charlotte, particularly children's groups and schools. We are excited to have her on board and can’t wait to see what new connections we will make.
New Class Offerings
We have three new classes coming up in October that still have spots open. Sustainable Gardening with Don Boekelheide will share ideas and techniques you can adapt in your own garden to increase sustainability without losing beauty and liveability. I will be teaching Planting Pawpaws, Persimmons, and Plums , a workshop on planting native fruit trees, where you will get hands on experience planting a tree in our native fruit terrace. Later in the month, Horticulture Supervisor and Landscape Architect Ed Davis will share some tips and tricks on getting your plants ready for winter in his workshop, Preparing Your Garden for Winter .
Plant Spotlight: Rose hips
Our podcast, The Plants We Eat , has been picking up listeners by the bucketful recently. One of the interesting topics that we just recorded and which will be released in a couple of weeks is a short piece on Rose hips and other parts of the rose which are used as food. I have tried fresh rose hips (with the seeds removed of course) and was pleasantly surprised at how good they tasted: kind of like sweet apple with a little bit of cherry and rose flavor mixed in. The petals of the rose have also been used as a food, usually as a dessert, but they have also been mixed with other foods, such as brains, which the Romans enjoyed .   
 
That's all for this month! Click below for a list of our upcoming events. I look forward to seeing you in the Gardens!
Jeff Gillman Ph.D.     
Director, UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens