Vol. 15, No. 2 August 2009

7:00 p.m.

St. Mary’s Parish Hall on 4^th Street in Longview
Our annual “Eatin’ Meetin” – Bring a covered dish and hearty appetite.


Message from the president
by Ellen Anderson
The rain has provided a nice relief to all the watering, but we are back at it again. Since Floyd likes to collect seeds, watering is a must for blooms and seed production. We are having a lot of bees, a few butterflies, and a couple of hummingbirds.

Our July meeting was fun. We had nineteen people attend, including some faces we had not seen in a while and some that we had never seen. Caroll Flournoy is a new member who had never attended a meeting. Rosanna Salmon and Vera Garlough, we had not seen much lately. Rex and Yvonne Youngblood, Doug Young, and Cameron Carlile came all the way to Marshall. Jeanette Smith brought her husband. It was fun to watch Cameron, Rosanna, and James Hayes finally meet one another.

It was so hot that there was only one tour of the yard—and no sitting on the porch. Geri, Frances, and myself stayed inside in the cool where the good food was.

Speaking of good food, there will be a lot of it at the August meeting. So come hungry!

Angela Schroeder, our scholarship recipient, was part of a team who won an award at the Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Science. You can read the article at ag.sfasu.edu

Something made dinner of Floyd’s Cardinal Flower (Lobelia Cardinalis L.). We will never know what it was because another someone had all the cocooned caterpillars for dinner after that. Each cocoon was compromised and the caterpillar ruined. I suspect a hummingbird. Oh well, maybe next year………

Texas native plant week signed by governor

Effective September 1, 2009, there will be an official Texas Native Plant Week, celebrated annually the third week in October.
During the 2009 Texas legislative session, Representative Donna Howard of Austin authored a bill entitled “An Act relating to a recognition week to celebrate Texas native plants” (CSHB 1739). She introduced the bill at the urging of Faye Tessnow of the Highland Lake Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas.
Texas’ youngest senator, Glenn Hegar of Katy, sponsored the bill in the Senate. It passed unanimously in both houses. Governor Rick Perry signed the bill into law on June 16, 2009.
Faye Tessnow convinced Representative Howard to introduce this legislation because she felt the official state recognition could serve to emphasize the role of native plants in conservation efforts, support efforts to teach school children about native plants, and make the public aware that native-plant species are threatened by loss of habitat and invasion of exotic species.
The weeklong focus on native plants will be new this fall, but Texas has had a Wildflower Day since April 26, 1980. This first day was proclaimed by a gubernatorial edict of Governor Bill Clements in conjunction with the first annual Wildflower Day conference at Texas Women’s University in Denton. This symposium, in effect, was the first meeting of the Native Plant Society of Texas.

By James Hayes

As representative for our chapter, I traveled to Fredericksburg for the quarterly meeting of the State

Texas Native Plant Society. I did find out that the coldest room in Texas and the place with the hardest

chairs are both located in Fredericksburg, Texas, and coincidently both are at the meeting place for the

State society. There was a large crowd in attendance and most of the State’s chapters were there. I

found and met the new in-coming president at the State level who from the Tyler chapter so East Texas

views will be represented there.
Some of the up- coming events they announced were a Wildscapes Workshop to be held in

Fredericksburg on September 12, 2009. Some of the workshop subjects are Sustainable Landscapers,

Edible and Medicinal Native Plants, Pollinators and Plants they Seek Out, and Grow It Yourself-Mixing

Edible Plants in Your Landscape. Our President will have an application if you would like to attend. Cost

Are $30.00 for registration and $40.00 for registration after September 4. Also up coming is the annual

Native Plant Symposium to be held October 7-10, 2010 in Denton, Texas. There will be several field trips

for attendees.
Chapter representatives were asked what type of local projects each was doing to promote native plants

and several gave very good answers. One was working with a large waste disposal company, which has

decided on a state level to plant various plants around the landfill to attract butterflies. The company

was working with a member of that particular chapter to plan and plant what was needed for that area.

Another was working with a local ACE Hardware Company (with ACE providing most of the money) for

special projects.

been approved and the governor was going to be signing the proclamation. They also mentioned that

one of our chapter members, Belinda McLaughlin, had recruited 52 new native plant society members in the new chapters.
The next quarterly meeting will be held in January and whoever goes to represent our chapter take heed

to this warning. Take a coat and a cushion.

 

Four Corners Chapter NPSOT: meets at 7:00 p.m. the first Thursday at Williams Memorial United Methodist Church parlor, 4000 Moores Lane, Texarkana.