Events

Our chapter maintains the native gardens at Westmeade Elementary School.  Everyone is welcome to join us for a little gardening adventure. Since weather can sometimes cause last-minute schedule changes, volunteers are encourage to join our email list for garden activities. Please email [email protected] to be added to this list.

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

Zoom Link 

Our Wild Readers Book Club will meet via Zoom to continue the discussion of The Forest Unseen. We will discuss four more chapters from The Forest Unseen beginning with the June 20 chapter and going through the July 27 chapter (pp. 127-147). This event is open to the public, but registration is required.

Wild Ones Middle Tennessee Chapter board meetings are open to the public.Zoom Link

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

We will deviate from our usual speaker presentation this month, and focus on our accomplishments in 2022 and what projects we want to emphasize in 2023. A starter list of potential projects the chapter could focus on is at this link on the chapter website. Everyone is invited to look it over and bring your own suggestions for chapter projects to the meeting.

Zoom Link

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Our Wild Readers Book Club will meet via Zoom to continue the discussion of The Forest Unseen. We will discuss the four January chapters in the book.

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

Zoom Link 

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Wild Ones Middle Tennessee Chapter board meetings are open to the public.Zoom Link

Our chapter will have a booth at this volunteer event to install 1,000 square feet of pollinator gardens. Volunteers are needed with the installation, also.

No signup is required to visit the booths and observe the installation. Please register (and sign a Metro waiver at the site) if you want to participate in the installation.

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Holly Taylor will be returning to give a presentation on

Planting for Pollinators -- an in-depth guide to pollinator-friendly landscaping.  

Why are native plants so crucial for the future or pollinators and the ecosystem? Let's explore this and other questions, as well as discover how easy it is to reverse the pollinator crisis in your own backyard.

Holly Taylor has been the Assistant State Naturalist for Tennessee State Parks since 2018. Prior to that she has worked as a naturalist and interpretive ranger for state parks since 2006, and even spent a couple of years as a traveling wildlife presenter for the Natural History Educational Company of the Midsouth (now Animalogy). She is also the chapter coordinator for the Cumberland Mountain State Park chapter of the Tennessee Naturalist Program. She graduated from Tennessee Tech University with a bachelor's in Conservation Biology in 2009. Holly has spent her whole life pursuing a deeper understanding of the natural world. Whether in or out of uniform, she loves nothing more than learning about Tennessee's incredible biodiversity and sharing that knowledge with others. She travels statewide leading hikes, giving presentations and assisting with events, all with the goal of connecting the public to the incredible natural resources our state has to offer.

Zoom Link

The Nashville Lawn & Garden show is a four-day event help in Expo Hall at the Nashville Fairgrounds. Our chapter will again share a double booth with the Tennessee Invasive Plant Council, the Tennessee Naturalist Program, and the Tennessee Native Plant Society. We will need lots of volunteers to staff our booth, so please make a note of the dates. Signup information will be available soon. The event is free for volunteers. Non-volunteers will need to purchase tickets.

Lawn & Garden Show

Started by the Garden Club of Nashville several years ago, Weed Wrangle has now become a nationwide event for removing invasive plants. Follow the link below to Hands on Nashville where you can select the Weed Wrangle site where you would like to volunteer. Volunteer times vary by location.

Hands on Nashville Weed Wrangle Signup

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

We will continue reading The Forest Unseen by David Haskell.  This time we will discuss the chapters starting with February 2nd through March 13th (Footprints through Helatica). 

Open to everyone. Registration required.

Our chapter will once again be partnering with the Swan Conservation Trust to remove invasive plants -- mostly Chinese Privet -- at one of their new properties that help protect the headwaters of Big Swan Creek.  We will meet at 10 AM on Big Swan Creek Road near Summertown, TN for this event. There is limited parking at the site, so we may need to meet at a nearby location and carpool to the worksite.  Please register for the event so we can track how many are coming. Weed wrenches and other tools will be available, but you are welcome to bring whatever you have that might be useful

The GPS coordinates of the worksite are (35.501168, -87.372187).

Map of Destination

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

Zoom Link 

Wild Ones Middle Tennessee Chapter board meetings are open to the public.Zoom Link

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Richard Hitt will give a presentation on Wasps: An Under-appreciated Pollinator

After a brief discussion of the very close evolutionary relationship among wasps, bees, and ants, the presentation will cover the difficulties that can arise in trying to understand wasps as a group. He will share his experience in using technology and citizen science projects to allow amateurs, like Richard, to make decent identifications, usually up to genus and often to species, of these fascinating creatures and show up in our native gardens.

Richard is the founding president of our chapter. He was certified in 2013 as a Tennessee Naturalist -- a program that he says, "Changed my life."

Additional details and a Read More link coming soon.

Zoom Link

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

Zoom Link 

Our chapter will have a booth in the Centennial Park bandshell area for the Nashville Earth Day celebration. The celebration goes from 11 AM to 6 PM. Volunteers are needed to staff the booth. Please volunteer to help staff the booth at the Registration link below.

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc.

Member Ashley Cantrell will describe the butterfly garden that she installed in a street median in May, 2021 in the Abbottsford subdivision in Nashville, TN. Ashley will discuss the elements of her garden, including plant selection and their appeal to middle Tennessee butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. You will see examples of some of the beautiful creatures you can attract to your own gardens, including a detailed video of a Monarch butterfly emerging (eclosing) from its chrysalis.

Zoom Link

We will have a table display at the Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade Festival on Friday and Saturday in the Cedar Forest Lodge at Cedars of Lebanon State Park. Please stop by if you attend the festival.

Our chapter maintains the native plants gardens at Westmeade Elementary School in Nashville. If you want to join in on the fun, please send an email to [email protected] to get your email address added to our distribution list to be informed of start times, weather cancellations, etc. To see a list of pollinators and other fauna we've seen at the gardens, please visit our iNaturalist Project.

We will have a native garden tour at Paul Prill's house on Sunday, May 7, from 2:00 - 4:30 PM (come and go as you like).  Paul's native garden is just two years old so we will get to see the early stages of the transformation.  Everyone is invited. 

Address: 5156 Ashley Dr, Nashville, TN 37211

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

Zoom Link 

The Wild Ones Middle Tennessee Chapter and Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary joint native plant sale will be in-person on Saturday, May 20, 2023, from 10:00 AM until 12:30 PM at Owl's Hill Nature Sanctuary.

Please visit the Read More link for more information, including a plant list for the in-person sale.

Rita Venable will give a presentation on 

“A Home For Butterflies”

What kind of real estate do butterflies look for when choosing a home? Do they like what they see, smell and taste at your garden or do they turn up their antennae and look elsewhere?

Zoom Link

We will continue our maintenance of the native gardens as Westmeade Elementary School.  If you are new to native plant gardening, this is a good way to increase your skills with native plants.

We will continue our maintenance of the native gardens as Westmeade Elementary School.  If you are new to native plant gardening, this is a good way to increase your native plant knowledge and skills.

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

The meeting will open at 6:45 PM.

Zoom Link 

To celebrate Pollinator Week, we will have a pot luck picnic at Shelby Bottoms Park in East Nashville.  Due to the constraints of the shelter, this will be a members (and families) only event.  Please sign up for the event using the registration link.

See map for directions.

We will continue our maintenance of the native gardens at Westmeade Elementary School.  If you are new to native plant gardening, this is a good way to increase your native plant knowledge and skills. Note the earlier Summer hours. If you would like to have your email address added to distribution list for this project, please click to send an email request. To view the iNaturalist project of fauna seen in the gardens

The hike at Flat Rock Cedar Glades and Barrens State Natural Area that was scheduled for Saturday, May 13, was canceled because of a threat of thundershowers. That hike has been rescheduled for Saturday, July 1 at 9:30 AM. We will meet in the parking lot of Flat Rock on Factory Road (approximately 3 miles East of Murfreesboro, TN). GPS coordinates to the parking lot entrance are approximately (35.858721, -86.295818). There will be an option to do a 4.5-mile loop or a shorter 2-mile loop trail.  The hike will focus on plant identification, glade plant communities, and ecology. Richard Hitt (and others?) will lead the hike. See the Event Page for additional information.Everyone is invited (open to all), but registration (below) is required.

Parking Lot Location

Come visit member Donnie Bryan's backyard paradise.  Donnie has terraced his hillside backyard into a large native shade garden near Warner Park. He has utilized both woody and perennial plants and has included a water feature that includes the rare Bigleaf Grass-of-Parnassus.

Street parking is available.

This is a member-only event. Members are welcome to bring a guest.

We will continue our maintenance of the native gardens as Westmeade Elementary School.  If you are new to native plant gardening, this is a good way to increase your skills with native plants.

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

The meeting will open at 6:45 PM.

Zoom Link 

Visit Wild Ones member Corey Chatis' 0.3 acre urban garden in East Nashville. Corey started her native garden transition in fall 2021 and has a variety of perennials, shrubs, and trees. 

Street parking is available.

This is a member-only event. Members are welcome to bring a guest.

We will work in the gardens at Westmeade Elementary School. Activities will include weeding, transplanting, potting up plants.

We will continue our maintenance of the native gardens as Westmeade Elementary School.  If you are new to native plant gardening, this is a good way to increase your skills with native plants  

Donnie Bryan, our chapter Vice President, will give a presentation on

Year-Round Gardening with Native Plants to Support Pollinators and Wildlife

where he will feature his own terraced backyard covered in native plants that was featured in a Fall 2022 episode of Volunteer Gardener.  Please visit the Read More link for details.

Zoom Link

We will continue our maintenance of the native gardens as Westmeade Elementary School.  If you are new to native plant gardening, this is a good way to increase your skills with native plants. 

We will continue our maintenance of the native gardens as Westmeade Elementary School.  If you are new to native plant gardening, this is a good way to increase your skills with native plants. 

Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? Join us for an informal discussion about native plants and any related topics. Everyone is welcome.

The Zoom Link will open at 6:45 PM.

This week we will concentrate on potting plugs into 5" deep pots for the upcoming plant sale.  The potting is nice and shady.  Whether you are one of the regular Westmeade gardeners or not, everyone is welcome to stop by help.

We will start at 8:30 AM this week and go until 10:30 or 11:00. But you can come and go as your time allows.

This week we will concentrate on potting plugs into 5" deep pots for the upcoming plant sale.  The potting area is nice and shady.  Whether you are one of the regular Westmeade gardeners or not, everyone is welcome to stop by to help.

We will start at 8:30 AM this week and go until 10:30 or 11:00. But you can come and go as your time allows.

Jason Allen will give a presentation on

Tour of the Cedar Glades

This will be a slide show style presentation focused mostly on the cedar glades of Long Hunter State Park.  Jason will  cover wildflowers, nightjars, and other special features of Middle Tennessee's globally unique cedar glades.

This meeting will be a hybrid in-person/Zoom event.

Location: Ed Jones Auditorium, 416 Hogan Road, Ellington Agricultural Center, Nashville, TN

Doors open at 6:30 PM, meeting begins at 7:00.

Please visit the Read More link for details.

Zoom Link

If the technology cooperates, we will offer our first hybrid meeting (both in-person and on Zoom)

We will host a booth at this festival.

This week we will return to actual gardening.  There are no more plant plugs to need potting.  We will start at 9:00 AM this week and go until 10:30 or 11:00. But you can come and go as your time allows.

We will continue to meet via Zoom for our chat meetings.  

These are informal and mostly unstructured meetings where anyone can ask questions related to native plants and related topics. Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? This is the place to be.  Everyone is welcome.

The Zoom Link will open at 6:45 PM.

Wild Ones Middle Tennessee chapter is offering a field class for members on Gardening for Butterflies (and other pollinators). The class will be on Saturday, September 23, 2023, from 9:30 AM - Noon. This will be an introductory class and no prior knowledge is required. Host plants and nectar plants will be covered.  Handouts will be provided. A pollinator walk will be included to practice pollinator and plant ID skills. Richard Hitt will lead the class, but everyone is encouraged to share their own experiences.

Expect muddy terrain if there has been recent rain. Close focusing binoculars will be useful for butterfly IDs (not required).  Your personal choice of sunscreen and bug protection is recommended. Since this is a field class, it is subject to cancellation due to weather. Wild Ones membership is required. The class is free.

Due to a scheduling error with the Ed Jones Auditorium, we cannot use the facility on the announced date, September 26. We have decided to move the September meeting to the next Monday, October 2.

This meeting will be a hybrid in-person/Zoom event.

Location: Ed Jones Auditorium, 416 Hogan Road, Ellington Agricultural Center, Nashville, TN

Doors open at 6:30 PM, meeting begins at 7:00.

Zoom Link

We will continue to meet via Zoom for our chat meetings.  

These are informal and mostly unstructured meetings where anyone can ask questions related to native plants and related topics. Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? This is the place to be.  Everyone is welcome.

The Zoom Link will open at 6:45 PM.

Join Wild Ones Honorary Director Heather Holm as she explores the nesting habitats, life cycles, pollen collection, brood rearing, and general characteristics of some of the most common native bees in eastern North America, while highlighting the pollination of native plants and the mutualism between native plants and native bees.

When creating and managing thriving habitats for native bees, many factors such as seasonal phenology, nesting strategies, and flower preferences must be considered—and with approximately 3,600 species in North America (north of Mexico), there are many unique aspects to keep in mind when managing successful landscapes for bees. 

Our next native plant sale is coming in October. Online ordering will be available from October 10 - 17 (Tuesday to Tuesday) with plant pickup on Friday, October 20. The in-person sale will be Saturday, October 21, 10 AM - 12:30 PM. There will be over 2,200 native plants from 135 species available.  

You can see the list of plants at owls-hill-nature-sanctuary.square.site (click Shop Now). Ordering at the same link will begin Tuesday, October 10, at Noon central time.

There is also a plant list with lots of information about the plants available here.

Shareable Flyer

We will return to the native gardens at Westmeade Elementary School this Sunday. We will start at 9:00 AM this week and go until 10:30 or 11:00. But you can come and go as your time allows.

We will continue to meet via Zoom for our chat meetings.  

These are informal and mostly unstructured meetings where anyone can ask questions related to native plants and related topics. Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? This is the place to be.  Everyone is welcome.

The Zoom Link will open at 6:45 PM.

Join us for an enlightening webinar featuring authors, Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox, as they present their latest book, "The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants." This comprehensive compendium is a treasure trove of knowledge for gardeners looking to incorporate native prairie plants into their landscapes. Neil and Hilary will delve into the making and application of this essential guide, sharing rich historical and ecological insights about prairie ecosystems, all while showcasing stunning images of prairie flora. 

Our chapter will once again be partnering with the Swan Conservation Trust to remove invasive plants -- this time mostly Chinese Privet -- at one of their new properties that help protect the headwaters of Big Swan Creek.  We will meet at 10 AM on Big Swan Creek Road near Summertown, TN, for this event. There is limited parking at the site, so we may need to meet at a nearby location and carpool to the worksite.  Please register for the event so we can track how many are coming. Weed wrenches and other tools will be available, but you are welcome to bring whatever you have that might be useful. Gloves recommended.

The GPS coordinates of the worksite are (35.501168, -87.372187).

Map of Destination

Signup

Our scheduled speakers from Neighbors4NativePlants.org requested to move their presentation to early 2024, so instead we will be doing a program on plant propagation.

The presentation will emphasize winter sowing methods since this is the right time of year to be doing that.  Paul Prill and Richard Hitt will give presentations and lead the discussion.

Presentation topics will include:

* Propagation methods for native plants
* Seed dormancy and why it evolved
* Seed provenance
* Rare plants (and the legalities of their propagation)
* Methods of winter sowing
* Seed starting media
* Seed stratification
* Seed scarification
* Demos of propagation supplies

This meeting will be a hybrid in-person/Zoom event.

Everyone is welcome!

Location: Ed Jones Auditorium, 416 Hogan Road, Ellington Agricultural Center, Nashville, TN

Doors open at 6:30 PM, meeting begins at 7:00.

Zoom Link

We will continue to meet via Zoom for our chat meetings.  

These are informal and mostly unstructured meetings where anyone can ask questions related to native plants and related topics. Have a question about using native plants in your yard? Have some comments or pictures you want to share? This is the place to be.  Everyone is welcome.

The Zoom Link will open at 6:45 PM.

We will meet in the parking area for Shelby Bottoms Nature Center for a plant ID hike.  This event is for members (and family) only. The GPS coordinates for the parking area are (36.167047, -86.725294). Registration for this hike is required so participants can be contacted with any last-minute information needed.

Register