Tag: selecting plants

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March 12 Chapter Meeting: “Partnerships for WaterWise Communities: City of Round Rock Landscape Project” with Jessica Woods and Emily Morales @ GT Public Library

Turk's Cap
Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii

Join NPSOT-Williamson County on Thursday, March 12, 2026, when our featured topic will be Partnerships for WaterWise Communities: City of Round Rock Landscape Project with City of Round Rock Conservation Staff, Jessica Woods and Emily Morales. Free and open to the public. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM.  The guest presentation begins after a short business meeting.

Please note: This month’s guest presentation will NOT be recorded for YouTube.

About our topic: Our presentation will provide insight into why we (the City) need partnerships to achieve our goals, as well as an update on our landscape transformation project at the Utilities and Transportation Office to which NSPOT has donated several plants. A lot of pictures will be included in the presentation!

About our speakers: Jessica Woods is the Senior Water Conservation Coordinator for the City of Round Rock. She is an active Good Water Master Naturalist and is starting to enjoy backyard birding.

Emily Morales is a Water Conservation Specialist for the City of Round Rock. She is also an active Good Water Master Naturalist and especially interested in habitat restoration and plant rescues.

==> This month’s in-person location is the Georgetown Public Library, 2nd floor, 402 West 8th St, Georgetown, TX 78626. Come early (6:30 PM) for expert advice, to check out the seed swap board, or just to visit.

==> To attend via Zoom, register at https://npsot-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/OqmyN9-bTNGQC6H2kh4qPA#/registration

At every meeting, we give away a book — about native plants or the meeting topic — to one randomly chosen in-person attendee!

If we have permission from our guest speaker, we record the presentation for our YouTube channel. (See a list of past topics at this link.)

Have an idea for a speaker?  Let Program Leader Susie Hickman know via  email to wilco-chapter@npsot.org.

NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public. We hope you attend!  Meetings may be in person, virtual, or both, so be sure to check details in the meeting announcement. Meetings are announced on our website, our calendar and Facebook. See upcoming topics on our Home page or on the Calendar.

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WilcoScape has been updated!

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The WilcoScape Team is pleased to announce recent enhancements to WilcoScape, our chapter’s native plant database. WilcoScape helps you choose, locate, and grow native Texas plants that thrive in Williamson County.

  • The most significant enhancement is the newly added Category filter set. 
    • The Easy to Find & Grow category includes the plants that are the easiest to find in nurseries and the easiest for you to grow successfully. 
    • The More Favorites category provides you with more native plants we recommend for Williamson County, but these may be a little harder to find or grow.
    • The third category is Consider Carefully. It also includes some great native plants, but the plant information needs to be evaluated carefully before adding them to your wish list.
  • We have also updated plant descriptions to indicate the different types of gardens or naturalized areas each plant is recommended for, providing another way to help you succeed with using native plants. Additionally, we added 40 more native plants recommended for Williamson County.

Many of the plants we recommend can be found at our chapter’s wildly popular native plant sales including the sale that is starting today, September 29. See Fall 2025 Native Plant Sale to find the latest native plant sale information.

Please visit WilcoScape and use the Contact Us link provided on the WilcoScape page footer to send us any feedback on your experience or suggestions for improvement.

Best,
The WilcoScape Team
– Gary Bowers and Randy Pensabene

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Video and Photos from July 10’s Annual Chapter Meeting

During the business portion of the chapter meeting on July 10, out-going president Nancy Copperman announced the officers who will hold elected positions for 2025-2026 for the term that will start on September 1, 2025.

image of speaker at podium
Out-going President Nancy Copperman
group of people
Incoming Board of Directors: (left to right) Kim Jones (Director), Nathaniel Woodward (Director), Erin Buhl (Vice President), Tyson Bartlett (Treasurer), Mark Stoetzer (President), Becky Sloan (Secretary)
group of people
Celebrating anniversaries! (left to right) Erin Buhl, Mark Stoetzer, Nancy Pumphrey

NPSOT member anniversary milestone pins were presented to folks celebrating 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 years of membership in the Society.

Nancy also announced that NPSOT has awarded chapter member Ashley Landry (founder of The Native Plant Rescue Project) a Lifetime Membership in NPSOT for her native plant conservation work.

The chapter meeting’s business slides are here.

Lastly, the evening’s featured presentation by Randy Pensabene and Gary Bowers was an overview and demonstration of “WilcoScape,” the chapter’s new native Texas plants database which focuses on Williamson County. See the new menu item [WilcoScape] at the top of this page!

NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public. We hope you attend!  Meetings may be in person, virtual, or both, so be sure to check details in the meeting announcement. Meetings are announced on our website, our calendar and Facebook. See upcoming topics on Home or on our Calendar.