Saturday, May 4th, 2024
9am - 3pm

2023-24 MBG Members: $30*
NonMembers: $35

* Members will receive a $5 refund to payment method after completion of registration

Consider Season Tickets - this lecture plus three others scheduled during the year! Click Here

Carol Reese, Horticulturist and nationally-known speaker

This day will begin at 9am and will include lunch. 

Morning session:
Native Plants: Facts, Fabrications and Foibles
You’ve heard these dangerously categorical statements made many times. Native plants are hard to find. Native plants are more drought tolerant and durable. Only native plants are useful to wildlife, especially caterpillars, birds and on up the chain. Native plant cultivars are “manmade”, useless to wildlife, and even have detrimental impacts to biodiversity. Carol’s fast-paced program challenges these claims. It celebrates the many native and non-native plants that can be found at any run-of-the-mill garden center, that provide great beauty, durability and excellent nutrition for our beloved wildlife. She will fearlessly challenge the lack of science behind the claims of “useless plants” and humorously point out the discrepancies in the nativist assertions. This talk will take you through space and time, and even plunges very briefly into simply facts of molecular chemistry that boldly stand up for non-native plants! Hold onto your hats and be prepared to come away with an eye-opening perspective of what is meant by native, plus add a few great underutilized natives to your simply-must-have list.

Afternoon Session: 
Why did my plant die??
This promises to be a fun interactive session with Carol -- an exploration of the good, the bad, and maybe the ugly of caring (or not!) for our plants.

About Carol Reese

Carol Reese is an Extension Horticulture Specialist housed at the University of Tennessee’s West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Jackson. She is a nationally-known speaker, blending equal parts gardening knowledge, natural lore, and quirky humor.

Carol is the gardening and nature columnist for several newspapers, as well as a contributor to several gardening magazines. She was the Q&A columnist for Horticulture Magazine for several years.

Her B.S. and M.S. in Horticulture are from Mississippi State University, and she could also add her Ph.D. if she “had ever written that damn dissertation!” While there, she taught classes in Plant Materials, and co-taught Landscape Design for non-LA majors alongside a “real” landscape architect.

This presentation day is part of the 2024 Marion Deane Drummond Lecture
Series - Bringing Horticultural speakers from across the country to Mobile, AL. Series sponsored by the Lilian Woolford Charitable Trust