On Wednesday, Sept. 19, Frank Holleman, president of the Naturaland Trust, headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, will speak to the Tryon Garden Club at its first fall meeting.

Holleman will describe how this South Carolina land trust works to protect South Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains and special places in the Piedmont. Naturaland Trust has played a key role in protecting the Blue Wall Preserve, the Greenville Watershed, Jones Gap State Park, Caesar’s Head State Park and Raven Cliff Falls.

Holleman will describe some of Naturaland Trust’s projects to protect rivers, mountains, waterfalls, wildlife and rare species in the mountains and Piedmont of South Carolina.

At the conclusion, members will see Steve Marlow’s short video on the Parks Mill Rocky Shoals Spider Lily (Hymenocallis coronaria) site on Stevens Creek in McCormick County.  In 2016, the South Carolina Native Plant Society and the Naturaland Trust purchased, with the aid of a grant from the South Carolina Conservation Land Bank, this site in order to protect the last significant unprotected population of this native plant in South Carolina.

The meeting will be held at FENCE, with the program beginning at 2 p.m. It is free, and the public is welcome.

FENCE is located at 3381 Hunting Country Road, Tryon. For more information, people may call 828-859-9021 or may visit FENCE.org.

The Tryon Garden Club will celebrate its 90th anniversary this year on Oct 24. A special Free Day will be held at Pearson’s Falls, the club’s waterfall and botanical preserve, located at 2748 Pearson’s Falls Road in Saluda.

For more information, people may visit pearsonsfalls.org or write P.O. Box 245, Tryon, NC.

– Submitted by Lucy Brannon