Notes from a plant nerd: Playing with a full deck
Dear reader, yeah, I mean you. You who are reading this while holding the paper in your hands or scanning through on your computer, tablet or phone. Yeah, you. I am so deeply grateful to you for reading my articles. This marks the 52nd column that I have written for The Smoky Mountain News, with one running every couple of weeks for the last two years or so. That’s one for each week in the year. One for every card in a deck.
Fifty-two was my goal when I set out to write and share these stories of plants and wildflowers that I love so much with you all. And here we are. I have written of Spring ephemeral wildflowers, Summer sunflowers, goldenrods of Fall and Winter’s celebrations of solstice and the holy days.
I have shared stories of food and medicine; pollinator and host plant relationships; Indigenous and Appalachian settler history; and many odd and fun facts that I find interesting about plants. I have gone deep into philosophy and soil, helping to relate our lives with those of the plants, flowers, shrubs, vines and trees that surround us here in Southern Appalachia.
I have told stories of orchids and asters, trilliums and trout-lilies, passion flowers and pine trees, gentians and ghost pipes, invasive plants and disturbance ecology, Hepatica, bloodroot, toothworts, mayapples, larkspurs and the magic of spring beauty. And there are so many more plants whose stories I’ve yet to share.
It has brought me such joy to have a regular column in this paper, specifically. I’ve been reading The Smoky Mountain News from the start and have had a few letters and guest columns published in the past. I graced the cover twice, sharing that honor with farmer William Shelton of Whittier. And small public service announcements published by The Smoky Mountain News have twice changed the course of my life for the better.
Once, I read of a project being started called the Sylva Community Garden and decided to go to the meeting and adopt one of the first plots given out. That led to 16 years of gardening in downtown Sylva and a career in organizing and managing community gardens and their volunteers. My reading that little blurb led to the creation of the Cullowhee Community Garden, a project of the Jackson County Department of Public Health.
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Another time I read another little blurb about this small, no-big-deal thing called the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference. I had just registered for Horticulture classes at Haywood Community College and figured why not go to this small, local event. What I walked into was the largest and oldest native plant conference in the country. And I now serve on the planning committee, lead a field trip every year and have presented at this conference that I’ve been attending since reading about it 19 years ago in The Smoky Mountain News.
Writing these columns for this wonderful free weekly publication which has brought so much goodness and joy into my life, and helped to form me into the person that I am today, is a big honor. I am grateful to Scott McLeod, and to my first editor who helped me for most of the articles, Holly Kays, to my current editor, Kyle Perrotti, and to all of the staff and contributors to this fine publication.
I write upon the shoulders of the great writers who came before me in this paper. Thank you to Don Hendershot, whose Naturalist Notebook column I read for years, and whose work I still follow. And to the late George Ellison, a hero to many in the region, whose “Back then” column taught me so much about the natural and cultural history of these mountains I call home.
And I have been given such wonderful gifts in the form of feedback and praise from many of you who read these columns twice a month. Messages shared in emails, on social media, at the credit union and at the Ingles from people who read and enjoy my column. Thank you. It means so much to me and fills me with such joy to know that you find joy in reading these. So, I will continue to write them, just as long as you’ll have me. Just as long as they bring you joy in the reading. Just as long as they bring me joy in the writing.
So here is to native plants, to the joy, awe and wonder found in nature. Here’s to slowing down and noticing the beauty all around us. Here’s to falling in love over and over with wildflowers. And here’s to the next 52 columns. May they bring you as much joy as they do to me. Thank you for reading.
Sincerely, Adam Bigelow, the Joyful Botanist.
(Adam Bigelow leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
