Roses (Rosa spp.) symbolize love and beauty and come with a sharp reminder that often love and beauty can be painful. A rose by any other name will still prick your fingers, or so the old saying goes. Or does it? 

Roses can be found blooming all around us in the late spring and summer in Western North Carolina.

On Friday June 5, Haywood Waterways Association will lead a moderate 6-mile hike in the Sunburst area of Haywood County. Shannon Rabby, Instructor of Fish and Wildlife Management Technology, Sciences and Natural Resources, will share his knowledge of local trees and woody plants on our way to a waterfall. 

The event is free for Haywood Waterways’ members and a $5 donation for nonmembers; memberships start at $25. 

As spring approaches, Great Smoky Mountains National Park reminds visitors of group size limits during the popular wildflower season at Whiteoak Sink. Individuals and small groups of eight or fewer people may access the Whiteoak Sink area throughout the wildflower season from April 1 through May 3. 

I’m a fairly serious person, usually sticking with facts, data and science. But occasionally I enjoy a good joke or a bout of silliness. Actually, anyone who has been reading these columns or has been on a walk among the wildflowers with me knows that silly puns and jokes are my bread and butter. 

As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene’s arrival in Western North Carolina approaches, two faculty members in Western Carolina University’s College of Business served as project managers for an in-depth study of storm damage to the North Carolina Arboretum in an effort to develop a plan for its recovery. 

Among my favorite things is to be walking in the woods and come across a patch of wild edible fruits. How quickly a leisurely stroll or difficult hike in the woods can offer a refreshing trailside treat or even enough abundance to make pies and jam just from noticing ripe fruits and knowing that they are edible and delicious. 

For the past few years, whenever I encounter the whorled loosestrife growing along a trail or roadside I have been saying its name out loud, and slowly. Like a prayer: “World, lose strife.”

Or so it sounds to my ears when said aloud. “World, lose strife.” And this world around us could use a lot less strife, that’s for sure. 

The Western North Carolina Orchid Society (WNCOS) and The North Carolina Arboretum will once again host one of Western North Carolina’s greatest annual plant shows: the 24th Asheville Orchid Festival “Orchid Arcadia” from March 28-30. The festival is an American Orchid Society sanctioned judging event. 

When seeking beautiful native wildflowers, I often travel and hike long distances to a special spot to see a rare beauty. Other times, it’s as easy as walking into the front yard.

I got stuck thinking about plants in the genus Smilax after writing about them last time out. It is such a great genus of plants, and as I discussed in my last column, most people only see them as a nuisance. I think they might be one rank below yellow jackets (Vespula spp.) and poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) as the most despised organisms in the woods.