Orchid festival returns to Asheville
The Asheville Orchid Festival, one of the largest international orchid shows in the Southeast, will return for its 22nd year 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 1-2, at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville.
Through National Geographic Photo Ark, people can look endangered wildlife in the eye
Joel Sartore lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, but he — and his camera — are constantly on the move.
Garden offers music-filled summer evenings
The popular ArborEvenings after-hours series at the N.C. Arboretum will return this year with a toy-filled twist.
Arboretum to begin reopening
Trails at the 434-acre N.C. Arboretum in Asheville will reopen on Saturday, May 9, as the campus begins Phase 1 resumed operations.
Science program goes statewide: ecoEXPLORE program for kids now available in N.C. State Parks
A program that’s been getting Western North Carolina kids outside since 2016 is now a statewide offering, with a whirlwind tour of 10 North Carolina state parks over the next couple weeks celebrating ecoEXPLORE’s arrival at all 41 park units.
“There’s a lot of benefits to being outdoors, and it’s something that we’re seeing less and less in adults and children,” said Jonathan Marchal, youth education manager at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. “A lot of times it’s almost like a competition — you can go outside and be screen-free, or you can go indoors and be completely immersed in a screen. I think one approach that is helpful is utilizing those items like smartphones as tools to explore the environment, and not just as tools to explore the environment but to engage kids in doing conservation work.”
A diverse portfolio: Seed bank works to protect genes of WNC plants
It’s been just about 10 years since the day Joe-Ann McCoy, then living in Iowa and working as the national medicinal plant curator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, got a life-changing call from her home region of Western North Carolina.
It was the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville, and they wanted to know if she’d be interested in trading her secure government job for a position funded by grants and contracts, moving to the Asheville area, and starting up a seed bank.
Winged wonders: Butterfly house is a living exhibit at the N.C. Arboretum
It’s one of those summer days that’s so hot and humid it’s impossible to walk even two steps without sweating, and inside the butterfly house the air is even heavier, thick as a tropical rainforest.
But, for the butterflies, it’s perfect.
Speaking for the trees: Waynesville launches arboretum effort
As manager of Waynesville’s urban forest, it’s safe to say that Jonathan Yates likes trees. So when Diane Kornse of the Mountain View Garden Club approached him last fall to ask if the town had any project in the wings that the club could help tackle, Yates was ready with an answer.
“I said, ‘Actually, I do have an idea I’ve had for years, but it would really require something like a garden club to make it happen,’” Yates recounted.
