N.C. Native Plant Society
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About
The Oconee Bell Chapter includes people who believe that just about anyone can use native plants to make an outdoor space more beautiful, easier to care for, and better for wildlife whether you have a shady or an open yard, a slope that needs erosion control, or a deck space or small balcony. Our Chapter serves an area “within comfortable driving distance” of the Cashiers crossroads. Surrounding Cashiers and at high elevation, this region spans the Macon, Jackson, and Transylvania County lines at the Eastern Continental Divide, with headwaters for seven rivers. Some of these flow toward the Gulf of Mexico watershed while others, including two federally designated “Wild and Scenic Rivers,” feed into the Savannah River basin that drains into the Atlantic. Our current goal is to grow our chapter membership among those in our region who are passionate about native plants. In our first year the chapter grew to 108 NC Native Plant Society members in our area and 275 email subscribers. See our newsletter archive and sign up at for a free subscription at the bottom of our chapter web page. As we increasingly recruit knowledgeable people in our region who care about and are promoting native plants, we learn from each other and provide educational opportunities to property owners, homeowner associations, and developers in our area to promote more planting and protection of plants native to our region. Everyone is welcome to participate in any of our chapter events, regardless of how much they know about our local native plants or whether they are members of our chapter. A very popular tradition we have established at all chapter events (which are free and open to the public) is to raffle native plants (donated by generous chapter members) and to give away native seed packets or to exchange native plant seeds we have collected.