Events Calendar

Landscapes in Progress events were designed as a way for our members to learn more about native plant gardening from the experiences of other members. Like all of our gardens, these gardens are "in progress." They do not have to be perfect, although there are always some really amazing and beautiful things to see! We have found that these garden visits are a great way to learn about a variety of native plants and the conditions in which they thrive. 

Join members of the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Wild Ones for a tour of 1 of our members' gardens as well as the Arboretum at Southern Adventist University nearby. For more information click the link below.

Free and Open to the Public

Join us as we dive into the captivating intersection of fine art and garden design with Gordon Hayward's Art and the Gardener: Fine Painting as Inspiration for Garden Design. Explore how timeless paintings can shape and inspire the way we think about our gardens. Whether you're an art enthusiast, a passionate gardener, or simply curious, this discussion will offer fresh perspectives and spark your imagination. Don’t miss this chance to share ideas, engage with fellow enthusiasts, and find inspiration for your own green spaces!

Book Review from Good Reads

"The study of art is the most important study a garden designer can pursue." - Marco Polo Stufano In Art and the Gardener, Gordon Hayward's tenth book on garden design, he makes a radical departure from his earlier approaches in order to explore elements of visual language across two artistic disciplines-fine painting and garden design-in hopes that the remarkable crosscurrents will help reveal how to design or simply appreciate your garden with greater acuity. In celebrating the visual language garden designers share with painters and artists such as Thomas Cole, Camille Pissarro, Piet Mondrian, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Gustav Klimt, Vincent Van Gogh, and more, Hayward explains how to choose your garden style, the relationship between house and garden, the overall composition, specific design principles, roles trees play in the garden, color, and bringing it all together.

Join Wild Ones National Board President Loris Damerow for a special presentation as part of Week 3 of the 2025 Less Lawn More Life Challenge, “Native Plants Planted Right.” Loris will walk us through the basics of native plant gardening- from choosing the right plants to planting and maintaining them with confidence.

Join us on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 5 p.m. CT for the YouTube Live premiere of this 30-minute webinar. Native plant experts from  Wild Ones, Plan it Wild, Homegrown National Park, ReWild Your Campus, and others will be active in the live chat throughout the presentation and for 30 minutes after the webinar, giving you plenty of time to ask questions and engage! 

This event is designed for newcomers to native gardening and is part of the national Less Lawn More Life Challenge, hosted by Plan It Wild in collaboration with Wild Ones, iNaturalist, Homegrown National Park, Pollinator Partnership  and many others! 

See more about the Less Lawn More Life Challenge:  https://www.lesslawnmorelife.com/ 

This fun and whimsical festival reaches a new audience every year!
Audubon Acres 900 North Sanctuary Rd. Chattanooga, TN 37421
Set-up shift duties: Get supplies from person that took down the last event. The supplies include 2 folding tables, 8x8 tent, tri-fold board, banner & tabling materials. Note: You will probably need an SUV or truck to carry the supplies. There is a cart to help with rolling to set up location.
Set up tent, tables, etc.
Make visitors feel welcome, encourage signups for newsletter and/or join Wild Ones, Share our mission using pamphlets, direct people to website
Regular shift duties: Make visitors feel welcome, encourage signups for newsletter and/or join Wild Ones, share our mission using pamphlets
Take down shift duties: Along with regular shift duties, take down supplies & store them or give them to the next event ‘set up’ person.

Join us on a hike led by Dennis Horn, TNPS Charter member/Author/Naturalist and botanical guru.  He will be our hike guide and lead us through middle Tennessee's Barrens ecosystem for grassland species at the Arnold Engineering Development Center and at May Prairie.  Dennis is co-author of “Wildflowers of Tennessee,” and you can bring your copy for an autograph or purchase an updated edition at the hike. 

First walk along with us roadside and into the large power line cut at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) to see slender blue Iris (Iris prismatica), cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum), native orchids: tuberous grasspink (Calopogon tuberosus), spreading pogonia (Cleistesiopsis bifaria), and possibly ragged fringed orchid (Platanthera lacera) and rose pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides).  We should also find early blooms of death camas (previously known as Zigadenus leimanthoides, now Stenanthium tennesseense).  

Then on to May Prairie for examples of TN rare plants that are disjunct from the Gulf Coastal Plain and the prairies of the Midwest, with more than 300 species, 25 of which are rare in Tennessee.  View blooms of paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea), marsh pea (Lathyrus palustris), early blooms of horned bladderpod (Utricularia cornuta), and swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris), three eryngo species (Eryngium prostratum and possible early flowering Eryngium mississippiense, formerly E. integrifolium, plus vegetative Eryngium yuccifolium) and many more.   

Easy walking and not to be missed.  Sign up for further details!  

Registration now open!

Come out and celebrate native plants with us and spread the word about Wild Ones' mission at the ANNUAL McCOY FARM AND GARDEN Memorial Day Picnic.

Bill Moll will illustrate how native shrubs can be used in your landscape with examples from about 25 commonly available shrubs that can be included in your garden design:

Criteria:

Under 10’, Attractive, Commonly available, Easy to grow

This course features an engaging Apple Keynote presentation exploring the art and science of cultivating a moss lawn or garden. Topics will include how to establish and maintain a thriving moss landscape, as well as the essential role mosses play in the environment. Weather and time permitting, we will also venture into the natural beauty of Reflection Riding to observe mosses in their native habitat.

Native plant gardening on a shoestring. 

Holli Richey, Dennis Bishop, Stephen Eselgroth, Bill Moll and others will discuss various ways to acquire native plants at low or no cost by cooperating with your neighbors.

    Sharing Plants – gardeners have extra plants through reseeding or division.

    Sharing Orders – 

        flats of plugs are inexpensive, but you may not want 49 plugs of one species;

        bare root shrubs and trees come in bundles of 100, but you probably want just a few.

    Sharing Seeds – many native plants grow readily from seeds which can be shared for free.

In this class, we are going to study the social-cultural side of native plants, and how these forces affect their distribution and use. We will discuss the indigenous and colonial history of the area, urban ecological systems, and examples of cultivating communities around edible native plantings. A central question will be, how do we create a culture that perpetuates native plants for the common good of our local ecology and local communities? We will look at several specific native plants to consider how they spread botanically and ecologically, as well as socially and culturally. 

Board members meet to discuss our chapter's progress and make decisions when necessary.

Medicinal Native Plants in the Tennessee Valley Region

The botanically-rich region of the Tennessee Valley makes it a full pharmacy when it
comes to the medicinal qualities of its native plants. In this course, participants will get
to know over 20 native plants found at Reflection Riding: how to identify them, where
they grow, what their medicinal properties are, how and when to harvest them and how
to make them into medicine. We will match plants with people through a health
assessment, so participants can see what plants might be important to include in their
own garden to help themselves, their friends and family. Ethically-sound and
sustainable sourcing and wildcrafting practices will be stressed.

Details coming soon! 

Fall Plant Sale.

Fall is the perfect time for planting.  Join us for this free event.  A variety of local and regional native plant nurseries will be selling a large selection of plants.

Details coming soon! 

Board members meet to discuss our chapter's progress and make decisions when necessary.

All Tennessee Valley Wild Ones members and guests are welcome to attend.  We will have a potluck lunch, election of officers, highlights of 2025, and a plant swap.  Please bring a dish and plants to share. This is a great time to visit with other native plant enthusiasts!

Details coming soon!