Letters to the editor:
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Happy for Scrappy

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for being the newspaper that you are. Charming, intelligent, witty, exasperating, opinionated. Thank you for taking the yeoman's job that the News-Sentinel does in assembling facts, and improving upon it with your insight, analysis and obvious connection with all things local. I look to the Sentinel for a recitation of facts. I look to Metro Pulse to learn what it means. As a result of your articles, Ear to the Ground, City Beat and other weekly columns, I feel more involved, more connected to my city and better informed. I love getting riled up by Mr. Mayshark's liberal slant, then calming down when I read the same cynical, jaundiced outlook as I hold on anything government-related that your irreverent paper espouses. It's refreshing to read about issues that I normally would never think about twice (growing up gay, etc.), and turning the last page with a sigh, perhaps changed, perhaps not, but always respectful of the spirit which suffuses your scrappy little weekly; to wit, an opinion paper that dares to care about its town. As a testament to the power of your paper, I now find that I frequent only those restaurants where issues of Metro Pulse can be found. It has become mandatory reading for me. By the way, did I say thank you?

Eric Brelsford
Knoxville

Don't Exploit the Flowers!

Though I agree that gardeners can grow native orchids successfully, I still have a hard time supporting the effort. As an avid lover of native wildflowers, I believe it is more important to create secure habitats for our remaining populations of orchids than it is to support an industry that many times unethically collects wild orchids.

Friends of mine have worked at rescuing these beautiful and endangered plants from areas being developed and even with their vast plant knowledge profess the difficulty in maintaining the plants once they are out of their natural habitats. The average gardener, myself included, does not have the knowledge needed to take care of these plants. To me planting these orchids in gardens is much like buying your child a bunny rabbit for Easter; the thrill often wears off when the maintenance becomes tedious.

Mr. Tullock's [May 2] letter also mentions the three ways in which lady's slippers can be obtained, but fails to mention that many native orchids end up in reputable nurseries under the guise that the plants were "nursery propagated." Welby Smith, the state botanist in Minnesota (where the lady's slipper is the State Flower) is quoted as saying, "Our native orchids, and indeed all our native plants, are in a steep decline. Loss of habitat is the main cause, but even where habitat can be protected, orchids still face the threat of species-specific exploitation.

Stories abound of unscrupulous nursery workers removing truckloads of yellow lady's slippers from forests...These orchids often end up in reputable nurseries under the misleading label of 'nursery propagated,' which means only that they have been held in the nursery for a minimum of one growing season. There has been some recent success with tissue culturing, but survival is poor. Some can be propagated through division, but the process is so slow it is commercially unviable. As a result, essentially all of the native orchids that are sold commercially are taken from the wild."

There are reputable orchid dealers who propagate native orchids via seed successfully. There are also very knowledgeable and honest native plant growers in the area. I would suggest that those wishing to grow these plants get them from these dealers. I would also encourage, as many orchid propagators and orchid lovers do, that they research where the plants actually come from before buying them—i.e., where did the nursery get them from. Remember, if the orchid is relatively inexpensive, it may come from a "seedy" source.

With respect for Mr. Tullock and his opinion, I would have to suggest that only experienced orchid gardeners attempt to cultivate these plants; furthermore, I would suggest a foray into our neighboring wilderness areas (maybe even your neighborhood woods)—you may get lucky and see one of these glories of nature undisturbed in its natural setting—it is definitely worth the walk.

Katie Gohn
Knoxville