Native Plant Society of Texas
Boerne Chapter
The Home of
Operation NICE!™
Natives Instead of Common Exotics
Web site: http://npsot.org/Boerne
NEWSLETTER
March 2012
Volume 12 Number 4
Monthly Meeting Tuesday April 3, 2012
Cibolo Nature Center at 140 City Park Road, Boerne TX
Susan Sanders will give a presentation on Hill Country tree identification. Susan grew up in Illinois north of Chicago and later transplanted to Texas from Washington Island, WI (an island in Lake Michigan) in 1983.Susan founded the Riverside Nature Center in Kerrville in 1989 and was director of Education there for 10 years. An environmental consultant she wrote a weekly column, Eco-Notes, for the Kerrville Daily Times for 11 years and was a staff photographer for 4 years. Susan also worked for the Texas Forest Service, was Education Advisor for Bamberger Ranch Preserve and served on the Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District. She is author of the book A Treasury of Texas Wildflowers; the Botanical Watercolors of Marie C. Wesley.
Susan currently works for a developer in Kerrville doing landscaping with native plants and serves on the City of Kerrville's Parks and Recreation Board. She has given many workshops on native plants, alien plants, and drought survivors. She has a BA in Philosophy from Augustana College, Rock Island, IL and a MA in Environmental Land Use from Sangamon State University, Springfield, IL. Come at 6:30 to socialize; the program starts at 7:00.
President’s Message
Spring is here and the winter rains have paid off in a bountiful wildflower season. Blue Bonnets are in bloom at my house and it won’t be long until the Indian Blankets, Mexican Hat and others follow.
Michael Nentwich, forester for the City of San Antonio, talked to us at last month’s meeting about planting 10,000 trees in San Antonio. There are not too many people you will meet who can say they planted 10,000 trees, and he got 80% to live! There was a lively question and answer period after his talk so I know others were as interested as I was. I have heard from several of our speakers that they are very impressed with the level of questions that come from our group.
Those Q&A sessions after a speaker’s talk can make for a long meeting and I know some of you have tight schedules, so after the speaker has finished, feel free to take off; I will make sure your chair is put up. I would rather have a few people take off early than stop the information being exchanged. And I will try and keep the meeting flowing a bit faster.
April means MOSTLY NATIVE PLANT SALE! It’s Saturday April 7th at the Kendall County Fairgrounds. Setup for the sale will be Friday and those who would like to help need to let Betty Dunn know at . We need help setting up Friday and working the booth Saturday. Because of the fires in Bastrop we have not been able to get many trees. The replanting at Bastrop has depleted the wholesale nursery in Austin of most of their plants. If any of you know of another wholesale nursery, or have plants to donate, tell Betty.
There will be a Butterfly Garden display at the plant sale with Milkweed plants to buy. Kip Kiphart has arranged for us to have these plants for sale at the April Plant Sale and the proceeds come to the Boerne NPSOT. We will make them available to other NPSOT plant sales too. This is all part of the M4M, Milkweeds for Monarchs program that Kip and Bill Ward came up with a few years back. It seems like every time we turn around there is Bill Ward’s efforts still being fruitful.
Mark Tuesday May 15th on your calendar. That is the date for the first Botany Taxonomy class. The class will be from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Heath Library. The class will be limited to just 20, so don’t wait around thinking about it, sign up. I am really looking forward to this and do very much appreciate Anne Adams and Betty Dunn for utilizing their skills for the benefit of educating others and for their hard work in bringing this about.
Several people have told me they are interested in helping with a float for the parades in Kendall County. We will have a meeting soon. If you are interested and have not told me, please let me know so I can direct the emails to you. The first parade is Boerne’s Berges Fest June 16th. We plan to do a seedball give away, so will need walkers and seed rollers along with float workers. Next month I will give you a more detailed idea of what is needed.
Susan Sanders will be our speaker for April 3rd. She will be talking about Hill Country tree identification. I will see you there, in the meantime get outside and enjoy the spring blossoms!
Scott B. Barthel
Editor’s note: see articles below for more details about the taxonomy class and the parade float.
Local Stuff
Meeting Munchies!
We all enjoy those munchies – sweet and salty alike, as well as a nice seasonal beverage at our monthly meetings. We are in danger of not having them the next two months as no one has signed up to bring any. Please contact Tommie Ashburn to sign up for snacks and drinks for April and May at or 210-289-9017.
Mostly Native Plant Sale
April 6th and 7th
Kendall County Fairgrounds
The Native Plant Sale is always a great fund raiser for our chapter projects, a terrific opportunity to promote drought tolerant native plants instead of exotics and is a fun two days.
We need plants, as there are still limited species, sizes and quantity available from wholesalers due to the effects of the drought. If you have already potted native/nearly native plants that you want to donate, let us know what they are (at least 1 of each type should be labeled) and how many so we can make labels. As Scott noted, we especially need trees. To sign up to help or to provide plant donation information between March 31 and April 6 contact Carolyn Estes at or 830-981-8665.
We still need help Friday evening and Saturday to work the NPSOT booth.
Even if you are unable to help in one of these ways, bring your friends and come buy plants to support the chapter activities.
Operation Nice!
NICE! ™Plant of the Month
Happy 10th Anniversary
By Carolyn Walden
Ten years ago the NICE! program was introduced in two newspaper articles (excerpts below) and at the 2002 CNC Mostly Native Plant sale. The program was conceived by the NPSOT board after Rebecca Rogers, first chapter president, stated that she needed to justify her involvement in NPSOT as part of her job as a Kendall County extension agent.
NICE! Plant of the Month for April
By Bill Ward
Boerne chapter NPSOT
This month the Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas began Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) to encourage homeowners, landscapers and nurserymen to use more native plants.
We chose the Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) to initiate the campaign, because it is a much-admired native that is readily available at local nurseries.
Boerne native plant lovers get boost
By Karen Adler
San Antonio Express-News
Web Posted: 03/27/2002 12:00 AM
BOERNE - Homeowners who landscape their yards with exotic plants no longer need to hide under the shade of their Chinese tallow or china berry trees.
A support group is finally here for them.
Next month, Boerne's Native Plant Society will launch Operation NICE! - Natives Instead of the Common Exotics - to encourage plant lovers to buy native plants.
Native plants like lantanas and Texas sage require less water and maintenance and tend to prosper better in South Texas, [sic Rebecca] Rogers said. In addition, exotic plants often displace or force out native plants. "Saving water is one of the key things," she said. In addition, "it preserves our heritage, it saves money and it nurtures wildlife.”
Ten-year timeline:
March 2002
Meeting of the Original NICE! Committee: Co-chairs: Jan Couch, Suzanne Young, Rebecca Rogers, Rebecca Yoder, Ann Adams, Betty Dunn, Bill and Kathy Ward, Marvin Hatter, Ellie Dillion, and Ann Black.
First Plant of the Month (POM) list created, covering April through December (skipping August).
Suzanne Young had already designed the NICE! logo.
April 2002
NICE! and POM kickoff at Mostly Native Plant Sale
POM launched at participating nurseries
October 2002
Trademark for NICE! logo discussed
Boerne NPSOT was named Chapter of the Year, due in large part to creating the NICE! program.
January 2003
Article in Lifescapes magazine featuring photo of NICE! committee members at Hill Country Nursery with owner Ken Froboese.
Decided to offer the POM as the raffle item at monthly meetings. Glen Sturgis obtained and brought plants to the meetings. Chuck Janzow donated many of the plants.
October 2003
Presented a “how-to” workshop on NICE! at the State Symposium in Fredericksburg.
October 2007 – Natives Instead of Common Exotics! NICE! trademark registered, thanks to the effort of Jan Couch.
NICE! Committee chair persons
2002-2004 Jan Couch and Suzanne Young
2005-2007 Jan Couch and Ann Black
2008 Jan Couch and Rebecca Rogers
2009 – present Becky Eterno
Many changes have been made through the years to make the program more efficient for the nursery owners as well as NICE! committee members.
The success of the program has been due to the support of the efforts of many NPSOT chapter members who write the monthly POM care sheets, grow and provide plants for the monthly meetings and annual plant sale, purchase plants from nurseries, and work at the plant sale.
Several NPSOT chapters have adopted the NICE! programs, including, but may not be limited to, Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Trinity Forks (Denton) and Tyler. The program is also widely known based on an internet search for “Natives Instead of Common Exotics” that resulted in over 3910 hits.
Suzanne Young remembers the past 10 years of NICE! this way: “Remembering those who worked on getting this idea of the ground, deciding on a logo, PR, workshops and creating those NICE! T-shirts, sure does bring back some fond and funny memories. NICE! was the brainchild of Bill Ward and Rebecca Rogers. The State NPSOT adopted our program. When I saw the NICE! banner hanging at the entrance of our State Symposium in Denton in 2010, I realized just how big the program had become. I've attached a picture of what I saw the day I arrived in Denton in 2010 to attend the state symposium. It made me so proud.”
April 2012
Mexican Buckeye
Ungnadia speciosa
Mexican Buckeye is a rapidly growing spring small flowering tree or or tall shrub. This tree will grow in well-drained calcareous soil, sand, loam, clay, and caliche in sun to part shade exposure. It is drought tolerant, when established. Several chapter members, including the newsletter editor, report that it survived last year’s drought in fine form without supplemental watering. This tree is found from the Edwards Plateau west to the trans-Pecos and into southern New Mexico and northern Mexico.
The fragrant pink to light purple flowers occur from March to early summer, which bees use to produce fragrant honey. Brown to reddish brown three-lobed seed pods contain 1 to 3 one-half inch diameter, dark brown to black, shiny seeds. Note the seeds are poisonous.
Mexican budkeye is listed as deer resistant, but will be browsed heavily under stressful conditions. It attracts butterflies and bees and is the larval host for the elf butterfly (Microtia elva).
Of interest, from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Native Plant Database information website http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=UNSP Although not a true buckeye, it is so called because of the similar large capsules and seeds. This distinct plant, alone in its genus, commemorates Baron Ferdinand von Ungnad, Austrian ambassador at Constantinople, who introduced the Horsechestnut into western Europe in 1576.”
Nice! Tip: Mexican Buckeye can be planted as a small ornamental shade tree, understory tree, or as a thicket or tall shrub and does quite well given a northern exposure. The fragrant, showy spring flowers attract many useful insects including bees and butterflies, and the fall color is a spectacular bright yellow. It also provides a nesting site and shelter for several bird species.
The Operation Nice! 2012 Poster, with all of our 2012 plant of the month selections, is on our website at http://npsot.org/wp/boerne/files/2011/12/plant_of_the_month_2012.pdf
Introduction to Plant Taxonomy
Presented by NPSOT - Boerne Chapter
When: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 10:00 a.m. to noon
Where: Patrick Heath Public Library Conference Room B,
451 N. Main St., Boerne
Instructors: Anne Adams, Betty Dunn, Chuck Janzow
In this class you will learn the basics of plant taxonomy, including terms used to describe plants such as leaf shape and arrangement, flower structure, and types of fruits. You will practice using these terms with plant specimens in a fun, hands-on activity. We will cover characteristics of six common plant families. This course will help you get more out of your field guides, and introduce you to other resources for identifying unknown plants. If you have a copy of Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country by Marshall Enquist (1987), please bring it with you.
The class is free and open to Boerne NPSOT members and friends, with a class limit of 20. We hope to offer the class again, for those who work during the day and can’t make this one.