As part of its "Story of Plants and People Series," the Mississippi State Trial Gardens is sponsoring a presentation by botanist Ed Croom, author of "The Land of Rowan Oak - An Exploration of Faulkner's Natural World." Refreshments will be served starting at 6 p.m., and Croom will present at 6:30 p.m. The plants and landscape at Rowan Oak are the "little postage stamp of soil" that Mississippi's own Nobel Laureate William Faulkner owned, walked and tended for over 30 years during the writing of many of his short stories and novels. More than 50 years after Faulkner's death, Rowan Oak remains a sanctuary and a place of mystery and beauty nestled in the midst of Oxford, Mississippi. The photographs in "The Land of Rowan Oak" are Croom's exploration and documentation of the changes in the plants and landscape over more than a decade. Croom is president of Croomia Botanical Scientific and Regulatory Consulting, and he previously was a full-time faculty member at the University of Mississippi.