We look forward to hearing from speaker Joan Feely at our BGC virtual meeting on Wednesday, May 26, at 7:30 p.m. Joan will speak about the U.S. National Arboretum’s “Fern Valley Native Plant Collection – A Garden Club Legacy and Living Treasure.” A Zoom invitation will be sent before the meeting.

Joan Feely is in charge of the Arboretum’s Fern Valley Native Plant Collection. While at the University of Maryland, she says she was lucky enough to begin her Arboretum career as a student worker. In the decades that followed, she has overseen the development of a number of new features in the garden including the prairie area, the coastal plain hedgerow, and the gardens of cultivated varieties, all of which are located within the larger Fern Valley.

The National Arboretum Fern Valley is a vibrant place of woods and meadows, home to hundreds of species of plants native to the Eastern United States, as well as home to many of the wonderful insects and animals that depend on those plants. Although Fern Valley is now closed to visitors, BGC hopes to arrange a tour when it reopens.