2015 Field Trip Schedule - Delaware Valley Fern and Wildflower Society

Field trips are a vital component of our Fern and Wildflower Society. We enjoy meeting with each other and discovering wildflowers and ferns in their wild habitats, gardens, and conservatories. There is always some-thing new to learn and places to visit that perhaps you did not know existed.

(July-Oct 2015)

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Saturday, July 18: DVFWS Summer Garden Tour and Picnic; 10AM
We will see two members' gardens in northwest Philadelphia, then have a picnic lunch. Janet Novak has a small city garden with a few unusual features and many unusual plants. In the front yard is a stone wall with small rock-garden plants tucked between the stones. The back yard has perennial gardens and a limestone barrens, which is planted with native plants that grow in rocky limestone habitats. Pitcher plants and other carnivorous plants grow in miniature bog gardens in containers. In total, the garden has more than 750 species and varieties of plants, including many natives and a few ferns.
Hope Punnett has a tranquil woodland garden, making it easy to forget that it's in Philadelphia. Native wildflowers and ferns share space with rhododendrons, azaleas, and a number of less well-known shrubs. The early spring ephemerals will have departed by then but there is always something in bloom.
After the garden tour, we will have a short business meeting and then a picnic. Bring your lunch.
Directions to Janet's garden, 19 West Willow Grove Avenue, Philadelphia (215-534-6700). From the Pennsyl-vania turnpike, take exit 333 towards Plymouth Meeting. Merge onto Germantown Pike headed south, and follow it for 5.6 miles. At Willow Grove Ave, there is a traffic light and Millennium Nails on the right. Turn right onto Wil-low Grove, and 19 West is the third building on the right, opposite Balance Gym.
From the Schuylkill Expressway, take exit 340A toward Lincoln Drive. After the stop sign, get into the middle lane to get onto Lincoln Drive. Go 3.9 miles. At the T intersection, turn right onto Allens Lane and go 0.4 miles. Turn left onto Germantown Ave and go 0.8 miles. At Willow Grove Ave, there is a traffic light and Millennium Nails on the left. Turn left onto Willow Grove, and 19 West is the third building on the right, opposite Balance Gym.
If the street is parked up in front of Janet's house, you should be able to find parking a block further down Willow Grove Avenue.
Directions from Janet's garden to Hope's garden, 6635 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia (215-848-5577).
Head back on Willow Grove Avenue the way you came from, and turn right at the light on Germantown Avenue. After 1.1 miles, turn right onto Mt Pleasant Avenue, then, after driving under the train trestle, turn left onto Lincoln Drive. After 0.9 miles, turn right onto Burnham Road (almost immediately after Arbutus Street). On Burnham, make a slight dogleg to the right at Wayne Ave crossing Wayne and continuing on Burnham. Park on Burnham towards the end of the block, and continue on Burnham by foot as it becomes a one-lane, gravel road. Hope's house is the first on the left. Despite the address, there is no access from Wissahickon Avenue, so do not try to get there from Wissahickon. For those who feel happier using GPS, use 641 Burnham Road. It is the house op-posite Hope's on the dirt lane.
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Saturday, August 8 : Workshop on Basic Fern Identification; 9:30 AM Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, PA
Joint workshop with the Philadelphia Botanical Club and the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust. In this workshop, you can learn to identify the most common ferns of our area. We will go over the characteristics that distinguish fern species, using fresh fronds as examples. We will also work on identifying ferns in the field in the Pennypack. No prior experience with fern identification is required. No equipment is necessary, but a hand lens will be helpful if you have one. If you have any ferns you want identified, bring a frond. The workshop will end at approximately 1:30 PM.
Location: Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust. Directions will be sent upon registration.
Leader: Janet Novak, botany@indri.org; cell 215-534-6700
Registration: The workshop is free, but limited to those who are a member of the Philadelphia Botanical Club, the Delaware Valley Fern and Wildflower Society, or the Pennypack Trust. Participation is limited to 20 regis-trants. The first 20 persons will be enrolled, and the rest will be put onto a waiting list in the order that the requests are received. Registration deadline is July 25. To register, contact David Lauer 215-764-6039 DML1000@comcast.net
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Tentative in September: Goat Hill Barrens, Chester County, PA
The largest of the State Line serpentine barrens, Goat Hill harbors a wide variety of endemic and disjunct species in unusual edaphic habitat. We hope to catch fameflower in bloom. Date to be determined.
Leader: Chris Hoess, Delaware Technical Community College; 267-918-6803; choess@stwing.org
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Saturday, October 3: Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ; 10 AM
Founded in 1992 on the former Trenton fair grounds to promote an understanding and appreciation for contempo-rary sculpture, this 42 acre park is not only composed of works by well known and emerging artists but is a beauti-ful property with varied artistic use of water, plants, and magnificent trees from all over the world, with a surprise at each bend in the path. This park is to be experienced and enjoyed; It has evolved and grown into a major destination in our area. There is an inside space as well that has art shows. www.groundsforsculpture.org/
There is a special rate for groups of 15 or more, $10 per person plus a $50 fee for the docent to be shared among the participants. The tour is about an hour. No outside food is allowed, but you can order box lunches, or there is a cafe or a high end restaurant. Plan to wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to enjoy each special detail that has been so carefully planned, on your own, after the docent tour is over. Box lunches, admission and docent fee must be pre-paid, so we are taking reservations until August 15th to determine interest before final arrangements are made. Arranged by Marion Schuenemann. Reservations to David Lauer 215-764-6039 DML1000@comcast.net by August 15th

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Delaware Valley Fern and Wildflower Society

2015 Field Trip Schedule

See "Past Events" for Field Trips in earlier years.

Our Field Trip Committee has put together many interesting outings for this year. Meet a new friend with common interests! Many of our outings are member conducted and there is no fee. It has been our custom to gather at the venue at the appointed time. You may wish to car pool with someone who lives near you, for which you have been provided a Membership Directory. You may wish to bring lunch and water as often the walk can go past the lunch hour. Some venues have an entrance fee and a docent fee which the participants share. For those, reservations are necessary. You will be advised of this in the description of the trip.

It is always good to let the leader or David Lauer know that you are planning to go on a field trip, regardless if reservations are necessary, in case there is a last minute change due to weather. It also helps the leader plan for the walk. David has graciously volunteered to send out notices by e-mail about each field trip a week or two before each event and be the contact person. DML1000@comcast.net

We ask that one member on each trip write a short summary to share in the Newsletter. Please send some pictures and choose someone at the beginning of each trip to write a brief summary and submit it to the newsletter editor at delvalfernsoc@gmail.com.

All field trips start at the location of the hike at 10AM unless otherwise indicated. Bring a bagged lunch as there is often an opportunity to extend the trip past 12 noon or to just socialize with other members. Some members who cannot go on a field trip would like to live vicariously through those who attend.

Saturday, April 18, 2015: Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, Bucks County, PA; 1 PM
The Preserve is home to nearly 800 native Pennsylvania species. More than 80 of these species are rare, threatened or endangered native plants designated as Plants of Special Concern in Pennsylvania. A deer ex-closure fence surrounds and protects 100 of Bowman's 134 acres. Over two and a half miles of picturesque trails offer some of the best hiking in Bucks County.
Gather at 1 PM. Our docent led tour will start promptly at 1:30 PM. There is a $ 7.00 fee for the tour, which includes the admission fee, payable at the site. You are welcome to enjoy the grounds before or after the tour. In fact, if you would be interested in attending a class that same morning entitled: Knowing Native Plants: Spring Ephemerals, check out the registration information on their website bhwp.org. This would be on your own, not part of DVFWS field trip.
Directions: Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve is located in Bucks County, near the Delaware River approxi-mately 40 miles northeast of Philadelphia and 2.5 miles south of New Hope, PA at 1635 River Road (PA Rte 32), New Hope. See web site for map. bhwp.org
Please Note: After you pull off of River Road you will see a large stone picnic pavilion on your right. Proceed past the pavilion, up the hill, and through the wrought iron gates. Follow the paved road up to the Visitor Center parking lot.
Reservations are not necessary, but we would like you to indicate if you are going by responding ASAP to David Lauer DML1000@comcast.net so we can notify them of the tentative size of the group.
Arranged by Karen Mohn
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Saturday, May 2, 2015: Monocacy Hill, Berks County, PA; 10 AM
Monocacy Hill Recreation Area is a 428 acre forest located in Amity Township, Douglassville, PA. It features about 6 miles of forest trails. Susan Munch, a botanyteacher at Albright College will lead us.
Meet at the northwest entrance off of Geiger Road at 10:00 AM.
Directions: Detailed map is found on their website www.monocacyhill.org. It is a short distance from Rt. 422 in Douglasville, west of Pottstown and east of Reading.
Contact Person: Karen Mohn 610-207-6851, papatrees@aol.com
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FRIDAY, May 15, 2015: Chanticleer: A Pleasure Garden; 11 AM tour
Chanticleer in Wayne is a 35 acre "pleasure" garden with many different themed areas. For ferns and wildflow-ers, you will not want to miss Asian Woods and Bell's Woodland. Each garden area has a plant list available. At 11 AM there is a tour which includes the mansion on the grounds and an overview of and history of the gar-dens. $15 includes the $10 admission to the grounds. Sign up for the tour is on your own which will avoid a group charge and a minimum count. see "individual tours" at www.chanticleergarden.org
We suggest that all who do not wish to take the tour, meet the other participants in the picnic area at 12 noon with their bag lunches. Following lunch we will go as a group to tour the gardens together. There is a $10 charge or $8 with other garden or PHS membership cards.
Directions: Chanticleer is located at 786 Church Rd. , Wayne, PA , a short distance from the intersection of Rt. 30 and 320. See detailed directions on their web site. www.chanticleergarden.org
Contact person Karen Mohn 610-207-6851 papatrees@aol.com

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Weekend, June 5-7: New England Botanical Club 120th Anniversary Research Conference
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. www.rhodora.org/conference2015/program.html
This is a free conference but registration is necessary. Deadline for registration in April 22. The Keynote speaker is Dr. Pamela Diggle and there are tours of the MacLeish Field Station and the Smith College Green-houses. Lunches Sat. and Sunday are provided.

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Thursday to Saturday, June 4-6: Native Plants in the Landscape Conference
Millersville University, Millersville, PA. Field trips, workshops, speakers, seminars and plant sale. You can regis-ter for any part or the entire conference. If you can't attend the conference but would like to pick up some plants, the plant sale is open to the public Friday 4:30 - 7 and Saturday 8:30 - 1. The vendors are wholesalers who do not generally sell to the public. Great plants. www.millersvillenativeplants.org/
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Saturday, June 13, 2015: Coventry Woods Preserve, Chester County, PA; 10AM
Coventry Woods Preserve is located southwest of Pottstown PA and east of Hopewell Furnace National His-toric site and Crow's Nest Preserve. It includes over 600 acres of woodlands on the eastern edge of the “Hopewell Big Woods,” one of the largest, if not the largest, stands of forest between Boston and Washington DC. The area that we will explore is a north facing slope of diverse forest on the south side of St. Peters Road.
Here are a few websites that contain information about the location:
http://northcoventrytownship.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Coventry-Woods-Park-2013.pdf
http://www.hopewellbigwoods.org/
http://growinggreener.info/success_stories/50
http://www.hopewellbigwoods.org/map7.html
Directions: From the intersection of Routes 422 and 100 immediately below Pottstown, PA, proceed south on Route 100 for about 2.2 miles and turn right on Kutz Drive. Turn right on Hoffecker Rd. and take the first right onto Laurelwood Rd. Then take the first left onto Temple Rd and travel 1 mile to a left turn on St. Peter's Rd. Stay on St. Peters Rd for 1.1 miles and turn left, staying on St. Peters Road. After 0.4 miles turn left at the Preserve's sign. Watch closely; it isn't too obvious. The leader should be visible here by 9:50. The trails are in good condition, with some slope.
Leader: David Lauer, 215-764-6039 DML1000@comcast.net. Meet at 10 AM. Bring a lunch.
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Sunday to Friday, June 21-26, 2015; Virginia Trip, working out of Charlottesville & Blacksburg
This will be our extended field trip, led by Chip Morgan and two of Virginia's best botanists, Tom Wieboldt and Gary Fleming. We will also be seeing gardens and other attractions for those who are not able to negotiate the somewhat more difficult trails.
ASAP, please let Chip Morgan, Dahnechip@aol.com, 434-295-6088, or Jack Schieber, jaro-ma4@verizon.net,215-357-3720 know that you are interested. They will supply all the details. We can only take twelve and spaces are filling up quickly.
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Saturday, July 11, 2015: Whittingham Wildlife Management Area, Sussex County, NJ; 11 AM
Whittingham WMA includes over 3 square miles of diverse terrain, including significant limestone areas rich in ferns. There are rough limestone outcrops and diverse wetlands. Mats of walking fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum) and abundant Ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) make a search for Scott's spleenwort (Asplenium x ebenoides) an obvious activity for the day!
Check out these websites for additional information:
http://www.njwildlifetrails.org/SkylandsTrails/Sites/tabid/445/Scope/site/Guide/SKYLANDS/Site/161/Default.aspx
http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/wmamaps/whittingham.pdf
http://www.njaudubon.org/sectionibba/ibbasiteguide.aspx?sk=3057
Directions: From Hope, NJ, south of Route 80:
Drive south from I 80, (if this is the route that you are taking) into the center of Hope, and turn northeast onto route 519. Drive for about 12.4 miles and turn right on Freedon-Springdale Road. Drive 0.8 miles and turn right onto the parking area entrance. The leader should be visible here by 10:50 AM. Please contact the leader in advance if you plan to attend this trip.
Leader: David Lauer 215-764-6039 DML1000@comcast.net. Meet at 11AM; bring a lunch.
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Saturday, July 18: DVFWS Summer Garden Tour and Picnic; 10AM
We will see two members' gardens in northwest Philadelphia, then have a picnic lunch. Janet Novak has a small city garden with a few unusual features and many unusual plants. In the front yard is a stone wall with small rock-garden plants tucked between the stones. The back yard has perennial gardens and a limestone barrens, which is planted with native plants that grow in rocky limestone habitats. Pitcher plants and other carnivorous plants grow in miniature bog gardens in containers. In total, the garden has more than 750 species and varieties of plants, including many natives and a few ferns.
Hope Punnett has a tranquil woodland garden, making it easy to forget that it's in Philadelphia. Native wildflowers and ferns share space with rhododendrons, azaleas, and a number of less well-known shrubs. The early spring ephemerals will have departed by then but there is always something in bloom.
After the garden tour, we will have a short business meeting and then a picnic. Bring your lunch.
Directions to Janet's garden, 19 West Willow Grove Avenue, Philadelphia (215-534-6700). From the Pennsyl-vania turnpike, take exit 333 towards Plymouth Meeting. Merge onto Germantown Pike headed south, and follow it for 5.6 miles. At Willow Grove Ave, there is a traffic light and Millennium Nails on the right. Turn right onto Wil-low Grove, and 19 West is the third building on the right, opposite Balance Gym.
From the Schuylkill Expressway, take exit 340A toward Lincoln Drive. After the stop sign, get into the middle lane to get onto Lincoln Drive. Go 3.9 miles. At the T intersection, turn right onto Allens Lane and go 0.4 miles. Turn left onto Germantown Ave and go 0.8 miles. At Willow Grove Ave, there is a traffic light and Millennium Nails on the left. Turn left onto Willow Grove, and 19 West is the third building on the right, opposite Balance Gym.
If the street is parked up in front of Janet's house, you should be able to find parking a block further down Willow Grove Avenue.
Directions from Janet's garden to Hope's garden, 6635 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia (215-848-5577).
Head back on Willow Grove Avenue the way you came from, and turn right at the light on Germantown Avenue. After 1.1 miles, turn right onto Mt Pleasant Avenue, then, after driving under the train trestle, turn left onto Lincoln Drive. After 0.9 miles, turn right onto Burnham Road (almost immediately after Arbutus Street). On Burnham, make a slight dogleg to the right at Wayne Ave crossing Wayne and continuing on Burnham. Park on Burnham towards the end of the block, and continue on Burnham by foot as it becomes a one-lane, gravel road. Hope's house is the first on the left. Despite the address, there is no access from Wissahickon Avenue, so do not try to get there from Wissahickon. For those who feel happier using GPS, use 641 Burnham Road. It is the house op-posite Hope's on the dirt lane.
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Saturday, August 8 : Workshop on Basic Fern Identification; 9:30 AM Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, PA
Joint workshop with the Philadelphia Botanical Club and the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust. In this workshop, you can learn to identify the most common ferns of our area. We will go over the characteristics that distinguish fern species, using fresh fronds as examples. We will also work on identifying ferns in the field in the Pennypack. No prior experience with fern identification is required. No equipment is necessary, but a hand lens will be helpful if you have one. If you have any ferns you want identified, bring a frond. The workshop will end at approximately 1:30 PM.
Location: Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust. Directions will be sent upon registration.
Leader: Janet Novak, botany@indri.org; cell 215-534-6700
Registration: The workshop is free, but limited to those who are a member of the Philadelphia Botanical Club, the Delaware Valley Fern and Wildflower Society, or the Pennypack Trust. Participation is limited to 20 regis-trants. The first 20 persons will be enrolled, and the rest will be put onto a waiting list in the order that the requests are received. Registration deadline is July 25. To register, contact David Lauer 215-764-6039 DML1000@comcast.net
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Tentative in September: Goat Hill Barrens, Chester County, PA
The largest of the State Line serpentine barrens, Goat Hill harbors a wide variety of endemic and disjunct species in unusual edaphic habitat. We hope to catch fameflower in bloom. Date to be determined.
Leader: Chris Hoess, Delaware Technical Community College; 267-918-6803; choess@stwing.org

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Sunday, September 27: Delaware Water Gap, PA

10AM Does the picture on Page 1 whet your appetite for a beautiful fall walk? Join us at Delaware Water Gap for a walk and get ideas for our Flower Show exhibit theme. We will meet at Pocono Environmental Education Center (PEEC) at 10AM. From there we have various choices of trails to take. 583 Emery Road, Dingmans' Ferry, PA, Phone 570-828-2319. Leader Karen Mohn, 610-562-1790.
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Saturday, October 3: Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ; 10 AM
Founded in 1992 on the former Trenton fair grounds to promote an understanding and appreciation for contempo-rary sculpture, this 42 acre park is not only composed of works by well known and emerging artists but is a beauti-ful property with varied artistic use of water, plants, and magnificent trees from all over the world, with a surprise at each bend in the path. This park is to be experienced and enjoyed; It has evolved and grown into a major destination in our area. There is an inside space as well that has art shows. www.groundsforsculpture.org/
There is a special rate for groups of 15 or more, $10 per person plus a $50 fee for the docent to be shared among the participants. The tour is about an hour. No outside food is allowed, but you can order box lunches, or there is a cafe or a high end restaurant. Plan to wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to enjoy each special detail that has been so carefully planned, on your own, after the docent tour is over. Box lunches, admission and docent fee must be pre-paid, so we are taking reservations until August 15th to determine interest before final arrangements are made. Arranged by Marion Schuenemann. Reservations to David Lauer 215-764-6039 DML1000@comcast.net by August 15th