Events

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.

In this special collaboration, Robin Wall Kimmerer, author, botanist, and founder of Plant Baby Plant, joins youth leader and Nurture Natives founder Esther Bonney for an intergenerational conversation about belonging, reciprocity, and native plant action. 

Together, they will explore questions such as:

How do we create opportunities for young people to have a voice and feel empowered, even when they are not homeowners or decision makers?What kinds of relationships and mentorships help people stay engaged in native plant work over decades?Why do stories, shared practices, and community invitations matter just as much as plant lists?

Robin and Esther will reflect on what invites people into this work, what keeps them here, and what elders and youth have to teach each other.

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.

Our upcoming webinar with Basil Camu explores practical, evidence based ways to heal suburban and urban landscapes by working with trees, soil, and natural systems, drawing on real world practices from Leaf & Limb and community centered models for restoring life where we live, work, and play.!  

Details coming soon,

We’ll continue our popular Freebie/Swap Table, so if you have any native plants, seeds, nature-related books, or other treasures you wish to re-home, please bring them along.

Everyone is welcome!

Zoom Link

We will look for early spring wildlowers at Beamon Park in Nashville's Highland Rim Forest!

Hike leaders will be Heather Gallagher (Park Director) and Richard Hitt.

We will meet at the Creekside Trailhead located at 4111 Little Marrowbone Road, Joelton.

Registration is not required, but doing so will provide a way to get updated information including carpooling information.

Registration 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 Joey Santore, creator of Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, for a candid Wild Ones National Webinar examining how inherited garden aesthetics shape native plant landscapes. Drawing on field experience and real ecology, Joey challenges tidy design norms and explores why dense, irregular plant communities are often the most resilient and ecologically sound.

Member Ran Powers will give a timely presentation on Attracting Bluebirds and Other Native Cavity Nesting Birds.  We cherish all our native wildlife, of course including birds, but see how our native cavity nesting birds face tough and unique challenges, and how you can help!

Ran is a middle Tennessee native, originally from Clarksville, where he gained an early love for the outdoors and wildlife. He's a retired Air Force major and F-111 pilot, was also an airline pilot, and he still flight instructs at Murfreesboro Aviation. Ran's passion for native plants began 31 years ago with a trip to the library. As a self-taught native plant gardener, he says he has had to learn more botanical names than he cares to admit.

We’ll continue our popular Freebie/Swap Table, so if you have any native plants, seeds, nature-related books, or other treasures you wish to re-home, please bring them along.

Everyone is welcome!

Zoom Link .

We will meet at the Nature Center at Warner Park for an out-and-back hike culminating in what we hope will be spectacular displays of Virginia Bluebells.  Along the way we hope to see Yellow Trout Lillies and lots of other spring wildflowers. Richard Hitt and others will provide interpretation. There is a little uphill hiking at the beginning but then the remainder of the trail is fairly level. Please use the link below to register.  

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.

The Cedar Creek Greenway Restoration Project began when Amy recognized that her neighborhood greenway was at risk of being overtaken by invasive plants. She now leads plant walks and volunteer workdays to remove invasives, support native species, and raise awareness about local ecological challenges.

Amy’s passion for plants began early, leading to a career in landscape design and a long-standing focus on Tennessee native plants. After returning to the field in Nashville, she expanded her work into environmental conservation, including her leadership of the Cedar Creek Greenway Restoration Project.

We’ll continue our popular Freebie/Swap Table, so if you have any native plants, seeds, nature-related books, or other treasures you wish to re-home, please bring them along.

Everyone is welcome!

Zoom Link

Join award-winning author, photographer, and educator Rick Darke for What Is Wild and Why It Matters, a free national webinar on Tuesday, April 28th at 10 am CT. Discover how inviting a bit of authentic wildness can create a vibrant landscape that sustains you and local biodiversity. This national event is presented in collaboration between Wild Ones and Homegrown National Park.

The native plant sale jointly sponsored by the Wild Ones Middle Tennessee chapter and Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary is coming soon! Online ordering will be available from

Thursday, May 7, at Noon through

Tuesday, May 12, at Noon

Plant pickup for online orders is Friday, May 15, from 8 AM to 2 PM at Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary (545 Beech Creek Road S, Brentwood, TN).

The in-person sale will be Saturday, May 16, 10 AM – 12:30 PM, also at Owl’s Hill.

Our informal chat meetings are meetings with no structured agenda – we meet via Zoom to talk about native plants, share related information, ask and answer questions. 

Zoom Link

Corey began converting her urban yard to native plants in 2021 and now has over 90 species of native perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees. Her garden is a Wild Ones Certified Native Habitat, a TN Smart Yard, and a Tennessee Urban Forestry Council Tree Sanctuary.  Her garden was featured in an episode of Volunteer Gardener in September of 2024.  Come see the Tennessee coneflowers, wild quinine, yellowwood tree, and more!

Richard Hitt will give a presentation on

The Curious Ways Flowering Plants Reproduce

Clues to Darwin's Abominable Mystery

How did flowering plants diversify so rapidly and come to dominate the world's flora? This question puzzled Charles Darwin, who famously described their sudden rise as an “abominable mystery.” Today, flowering plants account for nearly 90% of all plant species.

This presentation explores Darwin’s mystery through several native plants with unusual reproductive adaptations. From the sex-changing Jack-in-the-pulpit and the deceptive cranefly orchid to the timing mechanisms of passionflower and the seed-cloning abilities of dandelions, these species reveal the inventive ways plants reproduce and spread. Together, their evolutionary innovations offer insight into how flowering plants became one of the most diverse and dominant groups of organisms on Earth.

Everyone is welcome!

Format: Hybrid (in-person and Zoom)
Zoom:  Link
Date: Monday, June 22, 2026
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Location: Ed Jones Auditorium, Ellington Ag Center, 416 Hogan Road, Nashville, TN (36.06398, -86.74472)

Kim has several areas of interest at her West Meade home:

~Experimental community garden created in 2010

~Mailbox butterfly garden

~Front walk shade garden

~Cumberland River Compact experimental prairie

Bug protection recommended

After touring Kim's gardens, we will make the 10-minute drive to Andrea's home for the next tour.

Andrea's garden sits on a 1.73 acre sloped lot in West Meade hills. She began replacing the lawn with trees, shrubs, and flowers in 2008, but kicked it into high gear about 3 years ago when she understood the benefits of native plants. Now her garden features more than 100 different native species,, three different methods for replacing lawn (an experiment in progress), a woodland edge in recovery from decades of honeysuckle, and a large old fallen oak tree that is creating its own little ecosystem.

The Bartoo's have a small yard (.25 acre) in a suburban neighborhood. They finalized the step-wise converting of lawn to native gardens about 1.5 years ago by having Habitat Landscapes design and overhaul the shady parts of their yard. The rest has been a slow progression, from renovating a veggie/raised garden, to replacing much of the front lawn with natives. An ongoing labor of love meant to be walked and sat-in and to host all the critters who’d like to visit or stay.

As a bonus, they have an HOA approved native garden prominently placed near the ‘hood pool to serve as an ambassador to planting native!

Biodiversity is on display in Paul’s yard, with over 100 species of native plants from 20 different plant families. About 95% of the plant in Paul's yard are native, just above Doug Tallamy’s threshold for the replacement of song bird populations. The front and side yards feature specimen or demonstration gardens showing what can be done with native plants in smaller spaces. Paul’s gardens have several certifications.

Paul’s garden was featured on Volunteer Gardener in August 2024.

Paul’s home is in south Nashville between I-65 and Nolensville Road. Address information will be sent to registrants (registration required).

You planted native. Your neighbor has opinions. Maybe your HOA does too. If you’ve ever felt like the hardest part of native plant gardening is the conversations, not the gardening, you’re not alone.

Wild Ones is thrilled to share this upcoming free webinar as part of the 2026 Less Lawn More Life Challenge. Join Lorraine Johnson for a practical conversation on navigating HOA rules, addressing neighbor concerns, and fostering community conversations about native plant gardening and ecological landscapes.

Native plants are the foundation of habitat, but wildlife need more than food to thrive. Join ecologist and Certified Wildlife Biologist Shaun McCoshum, PhD, to explore how nesting sites, shelter, water, soil conditions, and other often-overlooked resources can transform a yard into a functioning ecosystem that supports biodiversity year-round.

Registration link coming soon.

What does it really take to turn a conventional lawn into a thriving native meadow? Join Owner & Principal, New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL), Sara Weaner Cooper for a candid look at her family's ongoing lawn-to-meadow transformation featured in The New York Times and BBC. Drawing from three years of hands-on experience, Sara will share the methods, lessons learned, successes, and challenges of converting turfgrass into a dynamic native plant community. Participants will gain practical insights into site preparation, planting, management, and the ecological principles that guide successful meadow establishment, along with realistic expectations for how these landscapes evolve over time.

Registration link coming soon.

Bats are among the most important and misunderstood wildlife in our communities. Join experts from Bat Conservation International to explore how native plants, healthy insect populations, and thoughtful landscape design can help support bats. Learn about the ecological role of bats and discover practical ways to create habitat for North America's night flyers right in your own backyard.

Registration link coming soon.

Monarch butterflies depend on a network of habitats stretching across North America, and home landscapes can play an important role in their survival. Join experts from Monarch Joint Venture to explore the science behind monarch conservation, including the importance of milkweed, nectar resources, and regionally appropriate habitat. Learn practical ways to support monarchs through native landscaping and help sustain one of the world's most remarkable migrations.
 

Registration link coming soon.