Educational resources used by Walmer Woodlands

 "Extension Master Gardener Programs are volunteer programs that train individuals in the science and aret of gardening. These individuals pass on the information they learned during their training, as volunteers who advise and educate the public on gardening and horticulture." from Wikipedia 

"The concept of the Conservation Garden was developed at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in the early 1990s to represent the many conservation-related activities that are at the heart of the Garden's mission and programs." from NCBG website

"The garden actively promotes and preserves botanic diversity by bridging the gap between botany and horticulture through plant study, identification, educational outreach, global plant exploration, and by selecting, breeding, and propagating new and little known perennials to share with plant researchers, botanic gardens, and gardeners around the world." from JLBG website

"Our mission is to promote the enjoyment and conservation of North Carolina’s native plants and their habitats through education, protection, cultivation, and advocacy." from NCNPS website.

" The Hardy Fern Foundation was established to introduce and test the world’s temperate ferns for hardiness and ornamental value and to build comprehensive collections for public display, information and education." from HFF website

"The American Fern Society was established in 1893 with the objective of fostering interest in ferns and lycophytes, or pteridophytes."

The AFS has an extensive spore exchange and is an excellent educational resource for people who are learning to grow ferns from spores.

 The Hardy Fern Foundation has an excellent page on fern genus characteristics.

Richie Steffen, HFF Past President and executive director of the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden,  gave a webinar on "Identifying Common Fern Genus" on Thursday, June 6, 2024.  I will be incorporating some of his interesting information into the Genus areas of my website.  If you get a chance to hear him speak, he is a wealth of information.  

POWO is an international collaborative program that provides references related to plant classification and accepted species names.   

Rafaël Govaerts, the Senior Content Editor for Plant & Fungal Names at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew informed me that they follow "A phylogenetic classification of the land plants to accompany APG III" and he also said that "There is no priority above the rank of family so different authors use different terms. 

FloraQuest is an app produced by the University of North Carolina and the NC Botanical Gardens to provide information about plants that are naturally occurring in the SE United States.