Events Calendar

Overview:  Plant Communities is a biology/ecology-based core course required for the Certificate in Native Plants.  It will be an in-person course scheduled for six hours of instruction and self-study.  The course will be a combination of outdoor observations and PowerPoint presentations. Students will go home with instructions to adopt a plant community of his/her choosing and using guiding questions, prepare a report to be returned to the instructors.
 

Plant communities are assemblages of plant species living together in a given place. Interactions among plant species, the interactions plants have with other organisms, and the interactions plants have with their physical environment all work together to determine the community's structure over time. This class will give an overview on these interactions throughout the globe and a more specific study of the plant communities that occur in our region and the multitude of factors that create them.

Location: The location will be sent to registrants with other pre-class materials.

Materials to bring! Notebook, pencils, snacks, water, and a lunch. This class will be both in and out of doors, please wear weather-appropriate clothing and foot wear.

This program is a panel of participants describing their experiences in installing school native plant gardens using the grant provided by Seeds fo Education

Past recipient at Hixson High School Lee Friedlander and Katie Claiborne will share how they integrate their pollinator native plant gardens into their environmental and visual art curriculums, respectively. Sally Wencel will share tips on the grant application process.

Set up table to educate those in attendance about Wild Ones

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.

Set up table to educate those in attendance about Wild Ones

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!

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.

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!