North American Rock Garden Society (Piedmont Chapter) Lecture
"A Plethora of Plants from Wake County to Wyoming and Tajikistan to Uzbekistan"
Jay Yourch, Nancy Doubrava, Chris Glenn, & Cyndy Cromwell, NARGS (Piedmont Chapter)
- Saturday, January 17, 2026 – 10:00 am–11:30 am
Cohosted by the Piedmont Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society and the JC Raulston Arboretum.
Four local Piedmont Chapter members will provide three 20-minute presentations. Jay Yourch will lead off with a four-season tour of his beautiful woodland garden called Beech Grove, concentrating on the trees and shrubs, both natural and planted, which have year-round interest and have attracted numerous visitors and magazine articles on this hidden gem in northwest Raleigh. Nancy Doubrova and Chris Glenn will then provide an engaging talk on the key moments from the NARGS annual meeting this past summer in Cheyenne, Wyoming—including the lively plant sale, selected local tours, and a look at the Snowy Range Scenic Byway, whose striking alpine landscapes provided an unforgettable conclusion to their trip to Wyoming.
Cyndy Cromwell will then close the program with her NARGS tour to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan last year, where she will beguile us with photos of rare and endemic tulips, crocus, iris, fritillaria, eremerus and other spring flowers found in the high elevations of central Asia.
About our speakers
Jay Yourch is a retired tech guy and he and his wife, Kim, garden in Wake and Ashe counties; Nancy Doubrava is a graduate of the NCSU horticulture program and is retired from the JC Raulston Arboretum; Chris Glenn, also formerly worked at the JC Raulston Arboretum, but now works for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Cyndy Cromwell is past chair of the Piedmont Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society and is now national vice president of the society.
- Cost
- Free for North American Rock Garden Society (Piedmont Chapter) members and Friends of the JC Raulston Arboretum members, otherwise $5.00.
- Registration
- No registration is required for this program.
- Location
- Ruby C. McSwain Education Center, JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University, 4415 Beryl Road, Raleigh, NC 27606.
- Directions
- Need directions? Click here.
- Parking
- Free parking is available at the JC Raulston Arboretum and along Beryl Road.
- Questions
- Contact the JCRA Education Team at jcraprograms@ncsu.edu for more information about this program.