SC Botanical Garden: Native Plant Studies

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. The South Carolina Botanical Garden located on Clemson’s campus offers a Certificate in Native Plant Studies. Our small state has wildly divergent plant communities and the Botanical Garden’s topography and soil types allows many of these to be replicated. At the garden, experts in ecology, conservation, botany, woody and herbaceous plants teach core classes – but then the special topics offered get super exciting – taught at the garden or off site. After taking field botany back in the day, I take joy in having an expanded palette of familiar plant faces greet me as I’m out – for me it’s like visiting Paris or Rome for me but without the crowds. And joy comes, too, from being with people who value the natural world and want to know how it all connects.