Chapters in Tennessee

Mycorrhizae play important roles in plant nutrition, soil biology, and soil chemistry – and product advertising! An internet search will find hundreds of products from the moderately priced to quite pricey, all promising to make you a more successful gardener.  Come to the July Wild Ones meeting to get the real scoop.

Dr. Hill Craddock is the UC Foundation Davenport Professor in Biology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His interest in the fungi began as a teenager when he first saw Orson K. Miller’s 1972 book Mushrooms of North America. His undergraduate course, Mycology: an Introduction to Mushrooms, Molds, and Yeasts, a very popular class at UTC, has been taught every year since 1996.

Dr. Craddock completed his doctoral and postdoctoral research on chestnut biology at the Università di Torino in Turin, Italy.  He conducted postdoctoral research breeding anthracnose-resistant dogwood cultivars at the USDA-ARS Nursery Crops Research Station in McMinnville, TN. He holds an MS in Horticulture from Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, a BA degree in Fine Arts, and a BA degree in Biology from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. The major focus of Dr Craddock’s research at UTC is conservation of Castanea dentata genetic resources and restoration of the American Chestnut.

We will continue to meet via Zoom for our chat meetings.  

These are informal and mostly unstructured meetings where anyone can ask questions related to native plants and related topics. Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? This is the place to be.  Everyone is welcome.

The Zoom Link will open at 6:45 PM.

Join members of the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Wild Ones for a private tour of two of our members' gardens in Red Bank.

You will receive directions and parking details in a follow-up email the week of the event.

This tour will begin in the front yard where Donnie has installed some recent gardens. After about half an hour, the tour will move the the back where Donnie  has converted the entire back yard into a native plant wonderland installed on a terraced slope.

This event will have two parts.  There will be a garden tour from 10 AM - Noon followed by a pot-luck lunch from Noon - 2 PM.  You can register for either or both events at the registration link below.

A few native plants will be available to share. Feel free to bring a few of your own if you wish.

Board members meet to discuss our chapter's progress and make decisions when necessary.