The Tryon Garden Club will feature award-winning naturalist, writer and teacher George Ellison at their Nov. 20 meeting at the Tryon Depot Room at 22 Depot Street in Tryon at 1 p.m.

The public is invited to join members to hear Ellison, winner of the 2012 Wild South’s Roosevelt-Ashe Conservation Award for outstanding conservation journalism, speak about Donald Culross Peattie, whom Ellison calls “the most important naturalist of the 20th century.”

Peattie is best known for two books on North American trees published in 1950 and 1953 among an impressive list of publications on nature as well as children’s and travel books.

In addition to his national importance, Peattie also played an important role in the Tryon Garden Club’s purchase of Pearson’s Falls in 1931, advising his mother, Ella Peattie, one of the club’s original members, about the botanical wonders of the glen.

Ellison, who has lived in Western North Carolina since 1973, will also have some of his books available for sale after his lecture. His most recent book, Permanent Camp, is a collection of poems, narratives and renderings about life in the Smokies.
– article submitted