Events

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.

Are you thinking about making a new garden, expanding or reworking an existing garden, or starting on a full landscape plan? Join us, whatever your experience level and whatever stage your plan is in. We will have a short presentation that includes lots of resources and some basic design principles to use when creating a garden. The rest of the time will be spent at tables in groups working on your plan. Experienced gardeners will be there to help answer questions you might have. If you can, bring a photo (printed out is great) of the garden area and any other supplies you use for planning a garden. We will also bring supplies to share. 

We recommend that before you come you watch the Wild Ones design workshop webinar, “Turn That Patch Into a Plan,”  where experts Zoe Evans (Plan it Wild) and Heather Evans (Design Your Wild) show you how to reimagine your entire yard as a place that truly works for both people and wildlife. As you watch the video, you are invited to sketch along and come away with a draft plan they can refine over time. Have blank paper, highlighter, and if possible, an overhead view of your property. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHv2Yea57SY

 Please RSVP to [email protected]

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.!  

Saturday, March 7, 10am, “

Don’t miss this one! WOMV vice-president, Maggie Reilly, will present her sequel to “The Power of a Compassionate Landscape” at the Hamilton College Arboretum Speaker Series. Maggie will inspire us to transform our small suburban yards into a welcoming, restorative landscape where you and others will want to spend time developing an even more meaningful connection with nature. She will discuss why it is more important than ever that we establish a reciprocal relationship with the land, becoming its guardians, while celebrating biodiversity in our own outdoor spaces.

Maggie will show us how to create our own sanctuary with a sense of enclosure, distinct destination areas or rooms, focal points, and functional spaces, surrounded by beautiful, ecological native plant communities of our ecoregion. She will present some of her favorite plant combinations as she reviews a hedgerow, foundation, and pollinator garden design.
Throughout, Maggie will reveal to us how she embraces her own ever-changing,
compassionate landscape to heal the land, build community, and share her passion for
native gardening. 

In person in the Taylor Science Center’s Kennedy Auditorium at Hamilton College, Clinton or by Zoom. Zoom registration will be available closer to the event date. Check website here. Presentation will be recorded and available after the event. 

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.

We will meet in person for a group discussion about the two journal articles described below.

To prepare for this event, please read the articles "Anishnaabe Aki: an indigenous perspective on the global threat of invasive species”  and if possible "Embracing Invasives.”  The articles examine alternative ways of thinking about the nature of our relationship with plants that are "new arrivals," or, as they are often called, invasive species.  Get ready to participate in a lively discussion!  

For links to the articles and location, please  RSVP to [email protected]

Join us for a discussion about creating the landscape you want and an open question and answer session.  Bring your questions about anything related to native plants to this open group discussion. Do you have pragmatic questions about which native plants will work best for a difficult area in your yard, need suggestions for starting a new garden, removing invasive plants, or dealing with deer pressure? Are you wondering about how to plant for a changing climate or seeking resources for designing a garden? No questions? Come anyway to enjoy the discussion and perhaps answer someone else’s question.

And if you have a favorite gardening tool – a great pair of gloves, pruners, digger, or anything else that has made a gardening chore much easier – please bring that to display!

Please RSVP to [email protected] for location

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.

Ernest Williams, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Hamilton College, will lead a walk along the Kirkland Trails. Marsh marigold, trillium, wild ginger, violets,and foam flower are among the native spring ephemerals and ground cover that we are likely to see. Migrating birds will be coming through, and other flowering trees and plants and wildlife will also be present along the trail. Although almost all of our events are open to the public, the number of attendees for this event will be limited, so preference will be given to dues-paying members of WOMV. Please rsvp to [email protected] if you would like to attend. Map of meeting location will be emailed to attendees. 

Tabling Event

WOMV Vice-President, Maggie Reilly, will give an updated version of her first talk for the Hamilton College, followed by a discussion time for the Madison County Co-operative Extension. Her presentation will focus on how to use native plants in traditional garden design to create outdoor spaces that are healthy, inspiring, and enriching. As a life-long gardener and retired environmental engineer, Maggie Reilly is a master at blending art and science when creating beautiful and diverse landscapes.

Maggie has been a speaker at the Hamilton Arboretum Speaker Series and local garden clubs and has a weekly spot, Maggie’s Minute, on "Along the Mohawk” podcast discussing native gardening. 

The program is free and open to the public.

Register: https://reg.cce.cornell.edu/NativeLandscapes_225 

WOMV Vice-President, Maggie Reilly,  will give an updated version of her first talk for Hamilton College, followed by a discussion time. Her presentation will focus on how to use native plants in traditional garden design to create outdoor spaces that are healthy, inspiring, and enriching. As a life-long gardener and retired environmental engineer, Maggie Reilly is a master at blending art and science when creating beautiful and diverse landscapes. 

Maggie has been a speaker at the Hamilton Arboretum Speaker Series and local garden clubs and has a weekly spot, Maggie’s Minute, on "Along the Mohawk” podcast discussing native gardening.

The presentation is sponsored by Wild Ones Mohawk Valley and Clinton Garden Club and is open to the public.

Come and enjoy a 30 minute guided walking tour of three of the five native gardens at FT Proctor Park, all designed by WOMV Program Chair, Amy Funkhouser. All three thriving gardens are full sun and received little to no watering after planting. The plant communities and designs may give you ideas for replicating at home or just relax in the beautiful surroundings. Family friendly. RSVP helpful but not required. [email protected]

In addition to helping individuals incorporate native plants in their home landscapes, WOMV also supports ecological landscaping on public and private lands. The Peace Garden was installed with the help of WOMV, and we continue to maintain it twice a year. Come help with the upkeep of this garden so that it remains an attractive local and public example of native gardening. Bring gardening gloves and a trowel, if you have them. RSVP to [email protected] is helpful for planning but not required. 

This 1.5 acre property on the side of a hill has a small wet wooded area, many existing shade beds dominated by invasive plants, and a sunny front bed of hostas.  The new homeowner has identified many of the native and non-native plants on the property and is working on an overall plan. The plan will be designed with plant communities, guided by the existing native plants which include sugar maple, hickories, Eastern cottonwood trees, jewel weed and gray dogwood. Goals include low maintenance for the long term, adding privacy screening, and flowering understory trees, expanding the small woods,  and restoring natives to the existing beds. Challenges include heavy deer pressure, shade, and invasive plants. For exact location, RSVP [email protected] 

If you are interested in hosting a Show Me/Help Me tour of your own yard, please let us know. Show Me/Help Me tours can be of properties that are just starting to add natives or long established native landscaping.  

Come and visit the beautifully kept and expansive native gardens on this Sherrill property. Over the last 3 1/2 years, what was a typical grass backyard has been transformed into almost entirely native gardens with mown paths between. The well designed gardens vary from vibrant full sun flower areas, a three year old  screening hedge of serviceberries, fothergilla, clethra and more, a thriving garden under a Norway maple and a Norway spruce, and a new 90ft hedgerow designed for privacy and for bird habitat. In addition, various groundcovers, or living mulch, can be seen in the different beds, as well as several types of fencing and cages. The garden is a lovely example of a yard designed to create a healthy ecosystem while also pleasing people with a taste for more traditional gardens. A great opportunity to view a variety of plant combinations and come away with ideas for your own gardens. RSVP to [email protected] for exact address.

This homeowner is looking for suggestions for her large, open lot bordered by woods, in Utica. She has heavy deer pressure, has removed buckthorn but needs to fill the area to keep the buckthorn from returning. She would also like suggestions for native groundcovers for the bare area under a maple, and would like advice about when she can remove fences from deer resistant plants like shrubby St. John’s wort, and ideas for native bushes to replace burning bushes that she has removed around her foundation. RSVP to [email protected] for exact address.

We are delighted to invite you to a Garden Tour featuring a popular Wild Ones Mohawk Valley native garden. The homeowner is a long-time gardener who started transitioning her lovely and traditional cottage gardens to include predominantly native plants in 2021. The gardens are extensive, featuring a large variety of native plants, shrubs, and trees. Big changes have taken place each year, and this year is no different. The removal of non-natives has made room for the planting of many new natives, including transforming one area into  a small forest of trees and bushes underplanted with a living mulch of  hundreds of plugs of multiple ground covers. Come and see how the native plants have matured in the last five years, while viewing the newest garden area and gardens still in transition!

This landscape still has hints of cottage gardens, along with “formalish” native front gardens, a woodland garden, and winding paths and hardscape that define "rooms," all of which foster a sense of peace and tranquility and an immersion in nature. Come visit and enjoy resting in one of the many sitting areas to view the functional and ecologically beneficial native gardens of this typical suburban lot, now transformed into a restorative sanctuary. RSVP to [email protected] for exact address.

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.