NARGS 2016 Conference

[David Nicholson]

Stuck what to do for your holidays? Like somewhere warm? Well here's a suggestion. Between 22 and 27 June 2016 the annual NARGS Conference will be held in Steamboat Springs, Colorado hosted by The Rocky Mountain Chapter. A chance to explore  North Western Colorado in prime wildflower season with hikes and trips to steppe, montane and alpine plant communities.

Tours of both Denver Botanic Gardens and Yampa River Botanic Park. Book sales and signings.

Could you ask for more???!!!!!

[Maggi Young]

NARGS Annual Meeting: Steppe to Alpine
Steamboat Springs, Colorado - June 23-27th 2016

Steamboat Springs will offer NARGS members a chance to see a beautiful and less famous side of Colorado in what Mike Kintgen describes as a botanical paradise of contrasting habitats. Most of the hikes and trips will focus on elevations ranging from the rich and varied steppe flora up to the interesting montane and subalpine areas (depending on snow cover).

The meeting will convene in Denver on June 22 and and picks up the afternoon of the 23rd in Steamboat Springs 170 miles to the northwest.

Please see Mike Kintgen's article "Steamboat Springs and the Northern Colorado Rockies" in the Summer 2015 Rock Garden Quarterly for a description of the floristic areas surrounding Steamboat Springs and what attendees may hope to see when they attend the meeting.

More details will be posted as they are available. Registration for the meeting will commence early in 2016.



Delphinium nuttallianum pictured in June - you could be seeing this! 

[brianw]

In view of the cost and distance, to get the most benefit from this conference for non N. Americans, I suggest you base a longer visit around it.

I have attended 2 of these conferences; 1 in Ottawa, and the other at Snowbird in Utah. Both I have attended with friends, adding exploration trips before and after. This also extends the season, as we all know getting the flowering time right is difficult. In Ottawa the cypripedium were hardly in flower for the conference trip, but a week or so later backtracking on a Greentours route through Ontario I saw many hundreds. The Utah conference I went out early, Snowbird alpine flowering timing was perfect, the conference included a 3 day trip, in my case to S. Wyoming, not far north of where the 2015 trip is based, and then an optional post conference trip to N. Wyoming, where we were a too late for Aquilegia jonesii flowers but saw many others.

I have been lucky with weather, and not had to hire my own transport on these 2 trips, but have done on other visits without any problems. You will have to join Nargs, for at least a year, to take part in the conference, and it gives you another seed exchange too.

[Maggi Young]

A note from NARGS : It costs non-members more than members to register   ...  and if you are a non-member, you get membership as part of your package! Of course some people will not want the journal or Seedex, so they can opt for "do not send" for the journal.


 See some more photos from the area : https://www.nargs.org/2016-annual-general-meeting-steamboat-springs-colorado

[Maggi Young]

I'm told  that the winter issue of the NARGS  Rock Garden Quarterly is a special "Northwest Colorado" issue with seven articles about the flora of the area. (Projected mail date of Dec. 16, 2015.) 

[fermi de Sousa]

We visited Steamboat Springs in 1999 and made a point of seeking out the Yampa River Botanic Gardens' rock garden which was newly planted - it would be interesting to see it again.
cheers
fermi

[astragalus]

In view of the cost and distance, to get the most benefit from this conference for non N. Americans, I suggest you base a longer visit around it.

I have attended 2 of these conferences; 1 in Ottawa, and the other at Snowbird in Utah. Both I have attended with friends, adding exploration trips before and after. This also extends the season, as we all know getting the flowering time right is difficult. In Ottawa the cypripedium were hardly in flower for the conference trip, but a week or so later backtracking on a Greentours route through Ontario I saw many hundreds. The Utah conference I went out early, Snowbird alpine flowering timing was perfect, the conference included a 3 day trip, in my case to S. Wyoming, not far north of where the 2015 trip is based, and then an optional post conference trip to N. Wyoming, where we were a too late for Aquilegia jonesii flowers but saw many others.

I have been lucky with weather, and not had to hire my own transport on these 2 trips, but have done on other visits without any problems. You will have to join Nargs, for at least a year, to take part in the conference, and it gives you another seed exchange too.

We must have met because I was one of the guides for the Wyoming part of the Conference.  Hope you sawe the Eritrichium in bloom, not to mention some special astragali.

[brianw]

Hi
You mean this one

I am the one on the LHS with the blue hat here

in the Bighorns.
In the Snowys there were 2 Brits together.

[astragalus]

Nope, not that one.  My husband and I were guides in the Snowy Range.  Sorry you missed that one.

[brianw]

Sorry don't have a group photo for the Snowys. Enjoyed the natural hot springs bath there before breakfast in the teepees on the "hotel" lawn, and the deer wandering through the grounds while we were chatting in the evenings in the marquee. Hot swimming pool an acquired taste?
The flowers on the trips out were great too. Snow melt Erythroniums, gentians, Moneses .....
Thought of an after conference trip back there if I come next year.

(altered my previous post photo, apologies)

[Maggi Young]

News from NARGS  :  "Online registration for the Steamboat Springs Conference  has been delayed until Jan 13. Feel free to use the mail in regestration for in the quarterly in the mean time."

[Maggi Young]

More News  from NARGS  - from today's date .... "  At this point in time the Post Conference Trip to Wyoming has filled. Stay tuned for more detail on a waiting list and other details."

[Julia]

Hi Maggi
the Registration form has still not gone live
I'm hoping to go but only if I can get on the post conference tour 

[Maggi Young]

 Their Facebook page says the online booking should go live today - 13th - but bear in mind the time difference - their day is just starting!
They have a mail-in form on the site now it seems, if you haven't got the paper  version - but I can't find it. 

[Julia]

Hi Maggi Date has just changed on the Registration Page - "Registration Form scheduled to go live on 16 January"