European Alpine Event in 2013- 2nd CZECH INTERNATIONAL ROCK GARDEN CONFERENCE

CLASH with NARGS ANNUAL MEETING in ASHEVILLE, NC

Sounds like a brilliant event but unfortunately its the same dates (exactly the same weekend 2-4 May 2013 !!) as the NARGS Annual meeting in North Carolina in Asheville which will be one of the 5-star events with trips in search of the flora of North Carolina at exactly the moment when North Carolina is a dream.

It's tragic that these two great events are going to cut into each other.

Oh my word! That is a great disappointment.  :'(

Perhaps still an alternative for overseas NARGS members who wouldn't be able to make the trip to North Carolina..... a sort of consolation trip!?

It's a rotten miserable shame for those who love conferences - these are both going to be good enough to have served as a full-blown Interim International Conference - and then two come along at once !!!!!  Really all the Europeans ought to go to North Carolina at least once in their lives and all the North Americans should go to Prague - they will both be brilliant.

NARGS Annual Meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, May 2 - 5, 2013

It is too bad that both of these great conferences coincide on the same weekend, continents apart in May 2013. The Czech conference is sure to be wonderful with the great speaker line up and the organizers, most of whom I know personally. And for those who have never attended the Czech Rock Garden Club’s great spring show in Prague, held in a quiet, enclosed churchyard adjacent to Charles University, you’re missing a treat. I highly recommend it.

However, for those who can’t attend the Czech conference, here is the western North Carolina alternative, the annual meeting sponsored by the North American Rock Garden Society, to be held in Asheville, May 2 – 5, 2013. Asheville is located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains in a region called the Blue Ridge. Hence, the title of the NARGS conference is “Exploring the Flora of the Blue Ridge.”

The after-dinner speakers are James Reynolds, a professor of geology at Brevard College, who will speak on the topic of  “The Geology of the Southern Appalachians” and how geology influences the regional native flora. The Appalachians were once as tall as the Himalayas, but the southern part was never glaciated, resulting now in a richness of plants and animals.

Also speaking is Timothy Spira (Clemson University) and author of the book, “Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachians and the Piedmont.” His topic is “Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge.”

The banquet speaker is Patrick McMillan (Clemson University), a natural history museum curator and host of a South Carolina public television show titled “Expeditions.” Patrick’s lecture is titled “The Crucible of Life in the Southern Blue Ridge,” an overview of the rich floral and faunal biodiversity.

Perhaps more important are the day trips around the area to see native flora, as well as private gardens. On the tours, attendees can expect to see natural stands of several species of rhododendron, woods of thousands of trilliums, orchids, sundews, hypericums, bog asphodel, grass-of-Parnassus, wild ginger, viola, bluet, and vaccinium. The native dogwood, redbuds, serviceberry, mountain ash, Fraser’s magnolia, and silverbell will be coming into bloom as well as trout lilies, wood anemone, Iris verna, and Heuchera villosa.

The background setting is one of waterfalls, outlooks and bluffs, granitic domes, meadows, and quiet woodland.

The May 2013 NARGS conference will be held at the Double Tree Biltmore Hotel (Asheville) off Interstate 40 and near the Biltmore Estate.

For further information, email me at:  [email protected] and further details will be posted on the NARGS Web site under “annual meetings.”

--Bobby Ward
Raleigh, North Carolina
Zone 7/8 depending on the new USDA hardiness map