1. Wednesday May 26 - 6 pm Wildflowers of Jay Cooke Cost $2/members and $4/nonmembers. MN State Park sticker required. Meet at the main visitor center of Jay Cooke State Park.

Join Larry Weber for the annual "Wildflowers of Jay Cooke." Arrive by 6 pm for a hike to see the Lady Slippers that blanket the hillside and other flowers in bloom, bring wildflower field guides, flashlights optional and be prepared to hike until dark.

2. Thursday May 27 – 6 pm: Tour of Clayton and Michelle Oslund’s landscape at 3020 London Road. We will see how native plants and perennials combine to make beautiful gardens! Shade gardeners, you won’t want to miss seeing their many native woodland perennials, “nearly native” perennials, ferns, and hostas. Please note: there is limited parking space available at the Oslund’s, so if possible please meet at the Glensheen Mansion parking lot (nearby) at 5:50 and we’ll carpool from there. Bring food for yourself for a picnic dinner.

Clayton and Michelle told me via email: “We will be ready -- Rain or Shine! There will be spring bloom. For the "picnic", we will have paper plates, cups plasticware and hot & cold drink. A small tent will be set up in case of rain. We are just 1/2 mile from Glensheen, so if you miss the carpool, it is just a short hike.”

2.5 Group Plant Order Status: I am hoping to receive the order from Outback this Friday, May 28. Paul Hlina of Leaning Pine plans to deliver our order on or around June 9. I will contact everyone that ordered as soon as I receive anything.

3. Get a FREE VIDEO! Wild Ones is offering a premium for anyone that joins OR RENEWS at the $50 membership level. The video is Wild About Wildflowers: How to Choose, Plant, Grow, and Enjoy Native American Wildflowers and Grasses in Your Own Yard. This item sells in the Wild Ones Store for $30. Please see the Wild Ones web site
(http://www.for-wild.org/chapters/Watsnew/index.html#040301) for more information or contact me.

4. PHOTO CONTEST – Wild Ones is again hosting a photo contest as part of this year’s annual meeting and conference. Anyone can enter and there are many categories to choose from so what the heck - dig out some old photos or take some new ones and enter! I am the Chairperson of the Photo Contest Committee so someone from our chapter is bound to win J. We have relaxed some of the rules (e.g., a range of photo sizes and shapes can be submitted and matting is not required) this year. See the national web site for contest rules at http://www.for-wild.org.

5. There will also be a SILENT AUCTION held as part of the national conference as a fundraiser to help support the cost of publishing the Journal and the support to local chapters provided by the national office (staffed by one dedicated person, fyi). If you have anything related to native plants to donate to the silent auction please let me know.

6. Speaking of the annual meeting, a web site has been set up with information regarding the meeting. You can find the link on the national web site or go directly to it at: http://gowild-madison.org/. I plan to go. If you are thinking of attending please let me know and we can start working on plans for transportation and lodging and pubs or parks to stop at along the way.

7. Does anyone subscribe to Wildflower Magazine? Evidently they are planning to quit publishing it. One of the Wild Ones Board members has spoken to the editors about the possibility of them doing one nice color issue per year that would be sent to Wild Ones members that join at the $50 level in place of the 6th Journal issue. This was discussed preliminarily at the May 21 Board meeting. If you have any opinions on the matter let me know as I’m on the Board and could use some help providing feedback on this idea.

8. FYI – if you are able to get out, check out the wildflowers along the Munger Trail. Yesterday I saw in bloom: trillium, yellow bellwort, trillium, juneberries, trillium, elderberry, trillium, strawberry, baneberry and some other small white flowers like star flower or ?. The best areas seemed to be those near where you bike/walk/skate through the cuts through the bedrock, before you get to Beck’s Road. (And my condolences to those who are unable to get out due to ailments, injuries, allergies or other causes. This now includes Alden who fell and seriously injured his leg. Get well soon to all of you!)

Please call me, Carol Andrews, at 727-9340 with any questions.

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