Southeastern Palm Society Meeting

Summer Meeting: Chattanooga & Athens, Tennessee

The Southeastern Palms Society summer meeting will be held in southeastern Tennessee. ("Tennessee, the Next Palmetto State", as local SPS members like to call it.)

The meeting will be held in Chattanooga and Athens, Tennessee, on Saturday, July 22, 2006, and will feature four fine palm and subtropical gardens.

Well begin at 10:30 am at Acme Engraving, 802 Hamilton Avenue, Chattanooga. Acme Engraving is the business of Tennessee SPS director David Cox, who has landscaped the highly-visible property with hardy and half-hardy palms, including a fruiting-sized jelly palm. Quite a display!

WeÂll also hold a plant sale at that location, and encourage members to bring palms and other plants, both common and rare, for sale or trade.

The next stop is David and Trish CoxÂs home in nearby Hixson. Their palm trees and roses make their home the "standout" property on the street, and David claims the tallest Sabal palmetto in southeastern Tennessee. (The tree was given to David. Some people have all the luck!) Trish grows roses, and the coupleÂs gardening interests make an interesting and happy blend.

Directly on the way to our last stop is the Bonny Oaks Arboretum. In 2003 local SPS members and the Hamilton County Master Gardeners added a palm display to the arboretumÂs plantings. Three seasons of growth are beginning to produce beautiful specimens.

WeÂll end the day at Will TaylorÂs garden in Athens, a 50 minute drive from Chattanooga. Will began his garden in 1996 and has packed it with a wide variety of hardy palms and lush plants. (His latest interest is hardy cactus.) As the garden has matured, itÂs now normal for his house to disappear every summer behind layers of bananas, palms, live oaks and TennesseeÂs largest Eucalyptus neglecta.

For lunch, at our first stop weÂll take a head count and collect money for pizza orders (around $5 per person). The pizza will be delivered to our second stop. Drinks will be provided.

WeÂre pleased to share this meeting with the Chattanooga Cactus and Succulent Society, with whom we share a number of local members.

As always, non-members are welcome and encouraged to attend.

See you there!

Directions to First Garden:

From Chattanooga and I-24, go north on US 27 through downtown and cross the Tennessee River. Take the Manning Street exit and turn right onto Manning Street. Go 0.7 miles to North Market Street and turn left. Go 0.6 miles and North Market swings right into Dallas Road. Go one block and turn left on Hamilton Avenue. Park just past the first building on the right.

First garden: Acme Engraving (10:30 am)

802 Hamilton Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37405-2108, US

Second garden: Garden of David & Trish Cox

3245 Stage Run, Hixson, TN 37343-3349, US

Third garden: Bonny Oaks Arboretum

6183 Adamson Cir, Chattanooga, TN 37416-3648, US

Fourth garden: Garden of Will Taylor

214 Oak St, Athens, TN 37303-2565, US

HOW TO JOIN SPS: Southeastern Palm Society membership dues are $20 for one calendar year ($25 outside the US, Canada and Mexico, payable in US funds). Applications received after October will be applied to the next year unless you request us to apply it to the current year. A student membership is available for $15. Please include a copy of your student ID (full-time status).

Click here to join online using PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover.

To join the Southeastern Palm Society by mail, print this page, fill out the form below, and send it, along with a check or money order payable to SPS, to:

SPS

c/o Will Taylor

214 Oak Street

Athens TN 37303

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