As a participant in leading the direction of the Davidson College Arboretum, I am happy to have found this forum of discussion on North Carolina native tree species. We have been an arboretum here at Davidson College for over 25 years. Our original goal was to showcase native plants from our region. We had wandered away from that ambition over the years with the introduction of many exotic species. But we are now once again determined to provide on our campus an educational and enriching environment with the display of common and unique native species. I hope this forum can be used to communicate our ongoing efforts and to locate information and materials.
I hope a discussion of commercial sales is acceptable here. Often, our most pressing issue is locating unique native plant materials of a size suitable for planting on our campus. We are currently considering and negotiating "consignment growing" with local nurseries for the production of species not readily available in the nursery trade. Certainly, unique plant material already available would be prefered. I enjoyed reading the discussion of the Paw Paw tree, which our one specimen is no longer. I have seen a few offered for sale online. But I know they are notoriously difficult to transplant and question the viablity of growing to maturity transplant stock. Any suggestions? Other species we are considering we need to include on our campus are the American Hornbeam (
Carpinus caroliniana), Sugar Hackberry (
Celtis laevigata), and the Sparkleberry (
Vaccinium arboreum). We hope to find these materials available for transplant, or as stock to be grown to maturity. We are also looking for a variety of native shrubs, especially the native azaleas which, though can be finicky, are an underused species in any landscape.
I gratefully thank and honor those in Duke University who have assembled the native woody plant list. This has been our guide in determining what is actually considered a native plant in our area. This information has been truly invaluable. There will always be discussion as to what a native plant is, but a list of accepted native species is the best place to begin. My personal mission are the native magnolias. We have introduced many of the native species to our landscape already: grandiflora, tripetela, macrophylla, and virginiana. Hopefully this can be expanded to include all the native species.
I want to invite everyone with an interest in native plants, and arboretums to visit us here on the Davidson Campus. Our arboretum is campus wide with over 500 species of woody ornamentals. Many are tagged. Our arboretum can be found about thirty minutes north of Charlotte, North Carolina. Our arboretum map and guided tour can be found here:
http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/Documents/OfficesServices/BusinessFinance/PhysicalPlant/Map%20Brochure.pdfAll of us here at Davidson look forward to many and interesting discussions on native plants throughout North Carolina.
