Events

This is a 6-session webinar series which focuses on the ecological roles of native plants and some of the creatures that depend on them. The meetings are  virtual,  at 10AM EASTERN each Friday for 6 weeks from January 7th through February 11th. While the first four sessions have been completed, webinars are available here; webinar recordings Register to join the final two sessions! LEARN MORE AND HOW TO REGISTER. 1/7  Beneficial Insect Biodiversity: What It Is and Why It Matters Mary Gardiner: author and professor, The Ohio State University 1/14 Bringing Nature Home: The Importance of Native Plants Doug Tallamy: author and professor, The University of Delaware 1/21 Cultivating a Community of Support for Native Plants Lisa Olsen: Wild Ones:Native Plants, Natural Landscapes 1/28 Host-plant Specialist Bees �" Biology, Biodiversity, and Conserving Them in Your Backyard Bryan Danforth: author and professor, Cornell University 2/4  Bumble Bee Banquet: Selecting Native Plants for Bumble Bees Heather Holm: author and biologist 2/11 Native Plants in My Garden? Absolutely! Debra Knapke: author and garden designer

This was a 6-session webinar series focusing on the ecological roles of native plants, and some of the creatures that depend on them. The webinars started the first week in January, and continue through February 11th. The final two live webinars are listed below. These final two webinars meet via Zoom on the next two Fridays at 10:00 AM. 2/4  Bumble Bee Banquet: Selecting Native Plants for Bumble Bees Heather Holm: author and biologist 2/11 Native Plants in My Garden? Absolutely! Debra Knapke: author and garden designer   Register Here But don't worry about missing the previous four presentations! All presentations, previous to today, have been recorded here: webinar recordings

Interested in Native Plants?  Bob Grese has answers. Bob Grese will offer a short program on native plant gardens. Learn more about upcoming programs and how you can get involved in native plants and conservation.  COVID masks are required, as is a review of questions at: https://its.umich.edu/computing/web-mobile/responsiblue/faq

An evening with Native Plant Professionals:  Laura Bien (Ypsilanti Native Plant Nursery), Matt Demmon  (Feral Flora), and Chris Oesterling  (New Leaf Nursery). 

Learn about Invasive Plants.  Steve Parrish of the Master Eradicator/Controller at MBG/NA

Visit Kurt Sonen's yard and the neighboring wooded preserve (7 acres). It's been a labor of love for 16 years.  Sunday, May 15 from 1pm - 3:30pm. I will start a tour every hour, at 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00. We'll start by the house and work our way through the preserve. Note: this is not a 'garden', but a natural area. There's plenty of natives to see. I'm up to 178 species - always open to more ID's.  Native FQI is 54.    314 Huntington Drive, off of Geddes. At the fork in the road, keep to the left. House # is on the mailbox and the sign. Park in my driveway if there's room, or beside my driveway on the turnaround loop (it's OK to block that side of the loop). There will be a couple of ciders on tap too

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. Member Host of this visit will be shared privately with A2WO members.

Jonathan Parker would like to invite you to a little plant sale of Purple Coneflower, Brown Eyed Susan, Nodding Wild Onion, Wild Geranium, Wild Columbine, Swamp Milkweed, Butterfly Milkweed, Wild Strawberry, Spikenard, Turtlehead, Big Leafed Asters, Heart-Leaved Aster, Bluestem Goldenrod, Early Meadow Rue, Cinquefoil, Wood Poppy, Prairie Dropseed, ..... About 1,000 plants. After a long, challenging year, it would be great to talk about how these kinds of plants might welcome more Michigan life to your yard. We have plenty of time to talk and with the help of Adapt: Community Supported Ecology, we have been practicing sharing information, tools, plants, and muscle power. Location: 2685 Powell Ave, Ann Arbor, MI Google Map

The Native Plant Expo & Marketplace (NPEM) offers residents one convenient location to shop for Michigan native plants from several Michigan native plant growers, learn how to establish and maintain native landscapes and connect with companies specializing in planning native landscapes. We are offering both pre-ordered and day-of sales. Plants sold as pre-orders are from Designs by Nature and WildType (online only) and will be accepted through the sale period or sooner if we reach our capacity limit. Full selection of pre-ordered varieties can be ordered from our store starting in December. All pre-orders will be picked up during the Expo and Marketplace. https://www.washtenawcd.org/npem.html

The Great Lakes Gardens, Matthaei Botanical Gardens.  Meet outside the Auditorium to walk over to the Great Lakes Gardens and organize in groups.   Guided tour of the Great Lakes Gardens, representing various habitats found throughout the Great Lakes region.  This is a great place to get to know many native plants up close.  The tour will be led by Mike Kost (curator), Calla Butler (native gardens manager), and Bob Grese (former Director).  They'll share the history of the garden, talk about the ecosystems represented, and share insights from establishing and managing native plants at the Gardens.

On June 11th, a 900 square ft. planting area near the center of the Library Lot in downtown Ann Arbor, will be getting a boost with the help of Wild Ones members. The Green Team for the Center of the City Project has invited the A2Wild Ones to highlight the beauty and benefit of native plants, by providing the opportunity for a display garden. We are looking for donations from WO members in the form of plants dug from your home gardens. We also welcome natives purchased from local native growers. Wild Ones signage will be posted in this garden display. These plants will experience a second, more permanent move within this general area, when the Center of the City gets an entire re-design, in two or three years. The area we are planting will be receiving almost full sun. Below are the plants that we would like to incorporate into this garden. Please choose from this list. While the installation will be on June 11th, consider now, what you will donate, and how many. Drop a line to Rita Mitchell, [email protected], and let her know what you will be donating and how many plants. Once we have an idea of what species will be donated, we will create a garden plan around those anticipated offerings and be ready for planting day. If you have a specific plant in mind that you would care to share, best to dig it now, and pot it up in a non-returnable container to minimize transplant shock for the installation on June 11th. Drive through to drop off your plants on June 11th between 9:00 and 11:00 AM. Enter the parking lot at Library Lane, from either 5th Avenue or Division Street, each of which is a one-way street. Traffic flows in opposite directions (see attached map) on these two streets: -5th Avenue traffic moves south to Library Lane -Division Street traffic moves north to Library Lane If needed, you can drop off plant donations Friday, June 10, between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm at 312 Westwood St, Ann Arbor. Call or text Rita at 734-272-5194 if you have questions. Please label all plants, so we easily know where to place them in the garden design. Thank you for contributing to this community project.

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. Member Host of this visit will be shared privately with A2WO members.

Our July Meeting will be held at Wayne Oliver's River Bend Gardens. Wayne and his wife are dedicated to restoring an Oak Opening, and preserving native Michigan species in their natural communities. A Guided tour by Wayne Oliver of his 65-acre preserve currently under restoration.  You will see examples of prairie and oak openings restorations, a beautiful floodplain forest, wet meadows, and oak-hickory forest.  Wayne will talk about the history of his property, his vision, and the current restoration work.  This is an incredible project, so come and join us for this tour!  His property is not only a great place to see plants but also to birdwatch. Directions: take M-52 to Manchester from the North.  Turn right onto Mound/River Bend Drive just inside the Village of Manchester.  Take River Bend Drive to 328 River Bend, and turn right where someone will help with parking cars on the lawn.   Carpooling is advised.  If you want to carpool, plan to meet at the Miller Road Park & Drive Lot in Ann Arbor at 6:00 pm, and we'll load into cars and caravan out to the River Bend Gardens property.   River Bend Gardens is located at 328 River Bend Drive, Manchester, MI You can learn more at the following link: River Bend Gardens

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. Member Host of this visit will be shared privately with A2WO members.

To all Ann Arbor Wild Ones Members and other interested parties; Our August Membership meeting on August 10th was previously canceled, in favor of everyone gathering for the Matt Demmon tour on August 17th. If you have any questions, please send an email to annarborwildones.org. We will look forward to seeing you on the 17th for the tour of Matt Demmon's property. Thank-you, Bob Hauser Membership Chair

Peggy and Tom Demmon, 7314 Park Lake Dr, Dexter, MI  Directions:  There is limited parking at the Demmons, so carpooling is advised. If you want to carpool, plan to meet at the Miller Road Park & Drive Lot in Ann Arbor at 6:15 pm, and we'll load into cars and caravan out to the Demmon's property. This tour will provide a good demonstration of how a one-acre lot can be transformed over a few years to a place of beauty featuring native plants. Matt Demmon (Feral Flora) has worked with his parents to restore the property they bought six years ago. When they originally bought the property, the lot was about half lawn, and the rest was mostly spruces, boxwoods, hostas, giant boulders, and lots and lots of empty mulched buds. There also was an ENORMOUS deck that was as big as the house. Over the first 4 years, Matt helped them rip out unwanted and invasive plants, fill empty beds with a mix of native and native-ish and non-native perennial plantings, turn 75% of the lawn into a meadow planting from seed, and demolish about half of the deck area. Now it's a mix of very wild natural plantings further away from the house, and more organized but full and natural-ish plantings around the house. There is a very large diversity of species, and there is a wide range of habitats, from full sun meadow to wet shore plantings to partial shade gardens under mature trees. Matt's parents have been very supportive his work and have let him experiment with aesthetic and species. Matt will be on hand along with his parents to help give us a tour. Guided tour of the Demmon's property by Peggy and Tom Demmon and their son Matt Demmon (Feral Flora).

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. Member Host of this visit will be shared privately with A2WO members.

Tiffany Giacobazzi, Urban Forestry & Natural Resources Planning Coordinator for the City of Ann Arbor, will be presenting: “Ann Arbor's Urban Forest: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” The City of Ann Arbor is currently updating its Urban and Community Forest Management Plan, and Tiffany Giacobazzi will discuss the status of our urban forest and the challenges for its future. Her talk will be a great opportunity to learn about the status of our urban forest and have input into the planning process. Tiffany has spent the last 14 years working with communities, all levels of government, non-profit groups, private landowners, utility companies, and students on numerous projects, programs, and workshops related to urban forestry. Before her current role as Urban Forestry and Natural Resources Planning Coordinator for the City of Ann Arbor, she was the state Urban Forestry Coordinator for both South Dakota and Indiana, respectively, and the City Forester for the City of Novi. She has a BS in Forestry with a minor in Ecology. Additionally, she is an ISA Certified Arborist and ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified Arborist. She enjoys being outdoors, working to improve the conditions of green infrastructure in the natural environment, and educating the public on forestry-related issues. Robert E. Grese, FASLA, FCELA Professor Emeritus of Environment and Sustainability

Graye's Greenhouse location

Feral Flora has decided they would like to try a fall plant sale and we will be at Graye's Greenhouse in Plymouth THIS SATURDAY 9/17 from 10-4 slinging shrubs, perennial quarts, and a smattering of 3" perennials that are left.

There will also be a large number of other vendors there and looks like you will be able to find succulents, house plants, various craft items, coffee, etc. from a lot of local vendors!

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. Member Host of this visit will be shared privately with A2WO members.

Speaker: Tony Reznicek, “Sedges (and a few other under-used plants) for native gardens in Southeast Michigan”

Please join us for what promises to be an inspirational session about a variety of native plants that you may not have thought about using in your gardens in Southeast Michigan.  Tony Reznicek likely needs no introduction to most of you as Curator Emeritus of the University of Michigan’s Herbarium and expert in our regional natural flora and natural history.  He is also an accomplished gardener and will undoubtedly offer sound advice for adding unusual native plants to your garden.

Tony is well-known in local botanical groups as an expert on our regional flora and an international expert on Cyperaceae (sedges), with a particular emphasis on the genus Carex.  He co-authored the Field Manual of Michigan Flora (https://michiganflora.net/ ) and is a leading authority of plants across the Great Lakes region.  He routinely shares his expertise about our native flora as a member of Washtenaw County’s Natural Areas Technical Advisory Committee as well as through his work with the Huron Valley Chapter of the Michigan Botanical Club and the Great Lakes Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. Robert E. Grese, FASLA, FCELA Professor Emeritus of Environment and Sustainability    

Attendees bring their own seeds. This year at Washtenaw County Parks field operations building at County Farm Park. (Ideally, this event would happen in November and December)

Prairie seeds are an important source of food for winter wildlife and a wonderful opportunity to collect seed for prairie restoration projects. We will go on a short hike to identify native plants in their winter form, collect seeds, then return indoors to clean and prepare seeds for a winter treatment in the refrigerator. This event is part of our Seed to Community Series. Hike led by Shawn Severance and Seed Processing led by Jonathan Parker. Hike limited to 18 people. Registration required, email [email protected]. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1496842940727845 

Bob Grese will be presenting "Wild Ones Year in Review 2022" -

2022 Monthly Meeting Presentations Washtenaw Native Plant Expo Member-to-Member Yard visits Special Projects Financial Report Membership Report New Chapter Officers What is happening at the National level