News

What's In Bloom in the Gardens: August 9, 2021

Categories: News

From left to right: Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), Pentas (Pentas lanceolata), Blanket flower (Gaillardia), Monkey grass (Liriope), Chinese abelia (Linnaea chinensi), Anemone (Anemone), Cestrum (Cestrum), Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana).

Volunteer at the Barton Creek Native Meadow

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Join us this Saturday, August 14, at the Barton Creek Native Meadow, a partnership with the NC Native Plant Society and University City Partners. Adults and teens are welcome to volunteer to pull weeds and mulch!

Sign up required. Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4ba9ab2babf49-barton1

What's Blooming in the Gardens: July 30, 2021

Categories: News
From left to right: Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum), Zinnia (Zinnia elegans), Angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia), Panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata), Sweetheart tree (Euscaphis japonica), Nodding onion (Allium cernuum), Mophead hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla), Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeeana)

What's In Bloom in the Gardens - July 19, 2021

Categories: News
From left to right: Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla), Plumleaf Azalea (Rhododendron prunifolium), Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum), Ruby Spice Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia ‘Ruby Spice’), Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Narrow-leaf Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium), Blanketflower (Gaillardia aristata), Phlox (Phlox)

Flower Encounters: Online Botanical Art Exhibit Winners Announced

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We are excited to announce the winners of the 2020-2021 Bigleaf Magnolia Art and Garden Festival‘s online botanical art exhibit: “Flower Encounters.”

You can see all accepted entries in the online exhibit by clicking this link.


Grand Prize Winner (awarded $300 and a Family Membership to the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens):

Look for the Rainbow
36×48 inches, Oil
Natalia Leigh

About the artist:

Natalia Leigh is a contemporary realist painter who lives and works in Kannapolis North Carolina. Her distinctive personal style emanates love to the nature and optimistic attitude to life. Natalia likes to paint with oil on canvas, sometimes on black canvas. Most of her paintings look like a view from the window. As the artist explains, “I am a storyteller, I invite you to look out of the window of your soul and see how beautiful the world around is.”

Natalia was born in Europe and drew pictures from her childhood. She started to paint in oil on canvas since 1990. In 2005 she moved to USA for a better life and started to display her Art in local Art Galleries of North Carolina since 2016.

Natalia’s artwork has been shown in her solo exhibition in Mooresville Art Gallery, Yadkinville and Morganton North Carolina. She is award winner of several local art contests and shows. In December 2018 Natalia Leigh received President’s Choice award for outstanding work in the visual arts from Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Presently Natalia works as a nurse and painting pictures in her spare time in her own studio in Kannapolis.

You can visit Natalia’s website here.


Merit Awards (awarded a Family Membership to the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens):

Sphinx Moon
17×12 inches, Discarded herbarium sample, colored pencil, watercolor
Amy Wendland

About the artist:

Amy K. Wendland received her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MA and MFA in Graphics from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Amy worked commercially as an artist and designer, with projects ranging from book covers and advertisements to logo design and museum exhibit drawings. After a decade of freelancing, Ms. Wendland switched her focus to fine art, concentrating on mixed media works on paper and sculpture. Her artwork typically utilizes a combination of humor, offbeat materials and obsessive craft. Ms. Wendland lives in Durango, Colorado where she serves as an Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Art at Fort Lewis College.

You can see Amy’s website here.

Summer Prelude
21×31 inches, Soft Pastel 
Toni Lindahl

About the artist:

Toni Lindahl holds a Masters Degree from New York University and has resided in North Carolina for forty-six years. Her pastels have won numerous awards in national and international juried exhibitions. She is a member of Women Artists of America, The Degas Pastel Society, a signature member of The Pastel Society of North Carolina and was awarded the title of Master Pastelist from the Pastel Society of America. She has been included in Who’s Who in American Art and her work has been published in The Best of Pastels, Portrait Inspirations, and Floral Inspirations by Rockport Publishers. Her work was featured in Pratique Des Arts in France. Her paintings are in numerous private and corporate collections including Glaxo, R.J.R. Tobacco, Steelcase, Sheraton and Hilton Hotels, Lowe’s Companies, and Duke University.

You can see Toni’s website here.

What's in Bloom in the Gardens, July 6, 2021

Categories: News

Pictured above (from left to right): Firecracker plant (Cuphea platocentra), Endless Hydrangea ‘Bloom Struck’ (Hydrangea macrophylla), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Shrubby St. John’s Wort (Hypericum prolificum), Whiteflower leafcup (Polymnia canadensis), Plum leaf azalea (Phododendron prunifolium), Stokes aster (Stokesia laevis ‘Color Wheel’), Dwarf oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Sikes dwarf’)

Update- Now FULL: Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day 2021 - September 18 Guided Tour

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**Update 9/7/21: Please note this tour is now FULL. To join the wait list, email Christen Hoover at choove10@uncc.edu **

Join April Faucette for a free guided tour through McMillan Greenhouse and the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens to celebrate Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day 2021. Tour is limited to 20 participants. MUST register beforehand by emailing Christen Hoover at choove10@uncc.edu.

All participants will meet at McMillan Greenhouse, 9090 Craver Road, Charlotte, NC 28262 at 9:45 a.m. to begin the tour.
Parking is available in the 5 spaces adjacent to the Greenhouse, or guests can use the free weekend only parking in East Deck 1 or Lot 5.

For more information about Museum Day, visit https://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/museum-day-2021/

Director's Report May 2021

What's In Bloom 5-26-2021

Categories: News
Top row (from left to right): Lacecap hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla), White zinnia (Zinnia linearis), Flame azalea (Rhododendron calendulaceum)
Bottom row (from left to right): Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica)

Polly Rogers Memorial Sensory Garden Now Open

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The Polly Rogers Memorial Sensory Garden officially opened to the public on Saturday, May 22, 2021. To learn more about Polly and her garden, click here: https://gardens.uncc.edu/polly-rogers-memorial-sensory-garden/