Events

In-Person Workshops: 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM & 2:00 PM - 2:50 PM

Meeting is free and open to Wild Ones members and public. Invite friends and family!

Last year we braved the elements to hold our Winter Seed Sowing event outdoors at the Nokomis Naturescape. This year we're partnering with Wood Lake Nature Center naturalists. We’ll be cozy inside and fireside, looking out at the beautiful marsh landscape!

Join us for this family-friendly event, and get a jump-start on your 2023 habitat garden. 

We’ll hold mini workshops to go over winter sowing basics. Table stations will offer the basic supplies of containers*, soil, water and seeds.

A number of pollinator garden seeds will be freely available, including milkweeds and blazing stars. Wood Lake Nature Center is also offering a variety of native grasses. ‘The more the merrier’, so we encourage people to bring their collected native seeds to sow and share. 

Please label with the following information:
• Species Botanical/Latin name
• Common Name
• Seed Source/Location

* While translucent containers will be available, as supply last, we encourage people to bring, if possible. Clear liquid 1 or 1.5 gallon jugs (as used for water, milk, vinegar) and large, salad containers with lids work well. We can puncture drainage holes at the event.

The news is filled with dire predictions for our natural world, and it’s wildlife.

More and more of our smaller native fauna have gone from common to rare to threatened; including songbirds, insects, pollinators and amphibians. What to do? The positive answer is to take action by hosting wildlife on your land. No matter how small your plot or garden, these actions will help make wildlife more at home.

All available places that you provide for wildlife to live and reproduce, helps. The four key ingredients of habitat enhancement for wildlife we will focus on are: food, water, shelter and structure. Think of it as setting the table for your wildlife guests. Specific wildlife habitat enhancement tools will be shown. This lecture will focus on smaller wildlife, many weighed in grams or maybe ounces; but all less than one pound in weight.

In our fraying natural world, taking these habitat actions can rejuvenate, both us and wildlife. Recent research has shown that this stewardship in our gardens is a critically important action for both our health and well-being.

While this is not the answer to all the troubles of our world’s wildlife, it is part of the solution.

When we hear about Feng Shui it is often in relation to home and business interiors… where is the bed or desk to be placed? what do I do about so many stairs? Is our bathroom in the wrong place?!

However, Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese method of living in harmony with one's environment, originated in the landscape. This introduction to Feng Shui will focus on applying the principles to your own gardening style, helping you create a landscape that more deeply reflects who you are. Feng Shui can provide your gardening efforts, whether large or small in scale, with meaning and intention to positively impact your life. Principles of ch’i (energy) flow, Yin/Yang, use of color, the Bagua (the Feng Shui map), the Feng Shui meaning of plants, and the significance of water in the garden will be explored, illustrated by photos of gardens and landscapes from around the world.  

Lois Elaine R. Anderson, BSN, RN, HNB-BC, is the founder of Red Tortoise Feng Shui.  A professional Feng Shui practitioner since 1998, she is certified in both contemporary style “Black Sect” Feng Shui and traditional “Compass School” Feng Shui.  She is a founding board member and President Emerita of the Feng Shui Institute of the Midwest, and a former faculty member of the Wind and Water School of Feng Shui. An avid gardener, Elaine provides consultations, classes and customized workshops on using Feng Shui in the home, garden and landscape, as well as business, educational and healing settings. She is an oncology nurse with M Health Fairview Cancer Care, and a certified holistic nurse with broad clinical, administrative and teaching experience.  The mother of adult identical twin sons and GramElaine to two grandsons and three “granddogs”, Elaine lives in Plymouth, MN, with her husband, Marc.

April is a great time to reinvigorate your gardening season plans! Wild Ones Twin Cities has invited professional native plant landscape designers and other experienced Wild Ones members to offer tips and answer questions on native plant habitat gardening. Information will be available on plant selection, garden site care, landscape design, climate resilience and flora fauna associations. We will also have our popular native plants signs for sale, along with books and other native plant merchandise. 

Drop in for a few minutes or stay for awhile to visit with all the experts! 

Event is free and open to public. Parking may be limited, suggest carpooling if you plan to attend with a group. 

Exhibitor Tables include:

Pollinators of Native Plants with Heather Holm https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/

At Home with Nature with Leslie Pilgrim http://www.athomewithnature.net

Pasque Ecological Design with Nathalie Shanstrom https://www.pasquedesign.com/

ReWild Native Gardens with Andy Scott & Associates http://www.rewildgardens.com/

Shape Your Garden with Susan Van Baerle/Bush Lake Izaak Walton League https://www.bushlakeikes.org/blog

Garden Variety Art with Holley Wlodarczyk https://gardenvarietyart.com/

Dragon Wynd with Jessica Miller https://www.dragonswynd.com

Native Plants & Climate Action with Ginny Halloran and Cass Markovich

Chapter Plant Sale Information featuring Prairie Edge https://www.wildonesprairieedge.org and Landscape Revival https://www.saintpaulaudubon.org/event/landscape-revival-shoreview-2023/

Plus: Wild Ones Twin Cities Genius Table, outreach materials and Nokomis Naturescape stewardship projects.

Shopping for and sourcing native plants can be challenging. Some plants sell out quickly, others are still in dormancy and not available until mid June.

In this presentation, Wild Ones member, Julia Vanatta, will walk you through the many options available to Twin Cities gardeners. Program will include tips on sourcing and growing from seed, budget considerations, reading a label, shopping on line, venturing out to native plant sales, outdoor markets and nurseries along with what to look for when shopping at your local garden center.  

For those attending in person, Wild Ones members may bring a sample of their winter sown containers to determine if they are ready to transplant into a larger container or garden setting. Assessing the milk jugs will be done during social time before and after presentation. 

About the speaker:
Julia Vanatta has been a homeowner in Minneapolis since late 1970s. Getting serious about gardening over 20 years ago, she uses her own gardens to experiment and learn all she can about native plants and the wildlife they support, especially insects. Julia has been active as a leader in various capacities for Wild Ones Twin Cities for many years. More recently she started the Facebook group, Native Plant Gardens in the Upper Midwest, a discussion group where members engage in an exchange of ideas and practices for local ecosystem gardening.

Twin Cities Chapter has arranged for a guided tour at Saint John's Arboretum in Collegeville, Minnesota. We will join tour guides, Steve Saupe & Brian Johnson, to look for spring-flowering plants and trees. The 1.5-mile loop is relatively flat and passes through prairie, conifer, wetland, deciduous forest and savanna habitats.

Spring ephemerals like Bloodroot, Trout Lily, Trillium, Jacob’s Ladder, Pasque Flower and Columbine are some of the most delightful native plants in our region. They can also be tricky to start from seed or source from nurseries.

Join us for a tour of a historic 1950’s woodland garden and a clinic on dividing plants as well as gathering and starting seed of these beauties. We’ll also talk about some of the unique methods these plants use for propagating. Just in time to put in to practice in your own garden!

About our host:
When Patrick Maun purchased this home in West St Paul he inherited a neglected woodland garden which had been planted and tended by Fran Brown, the original homeowner.  Patrick painstakingly removed buckthorn and garlic mustard, then began to learn how to bring this old woodland garden back to life. Self taught, he began to experiment with propagating woodland plants, learning when and how to collect, process and germinate seed from his spring ephemerals.

Event is at a private residence, address will be sent to attendees just prior to the event. Space is limited, if you register and then cannot attend, please cancel your reservation.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED
This is a member only tour, space is limited to 20 attendees, registration is required. More details available via this registration link.

BACK UP DATE: In the event of extreme weather we have set Sat, June 17, 10:30 am as a back up plan. We will make the decision Wednesday morning and notify attendees via email.

Men’s and Women’s Garden Club of Minneapolis - 2023 Public Garden and Urban Farm Tour

The Men’s and Women’s Garden Club of Minneapolis self-drive tour will visit a combination of five private gardens, two urban farms (a cut-flower and mushroom farm), and one community garden on this metro area tour, rain or shine.  Each garden/urban farm will feature on-the-hour “highlight tours,” as well as “extras” at many of the sites, ie:  the Bonsai Society, Wild Ones Native Plants Twin Cities chapter, Club Member Larry Cipolla demonstrating hydroponic gardening, garden photography tips from Club Members Lloyd Wittstock and Andy Marlow, flower arranging displays, a ceramist, etc.  Proceeds will benefit the Club’s Horticulture Scholarship Program.

Longfellow Garden Club annual garden expo, a one host garden tour with tables offering information on various gardening topics.

Instructors | Julia Vanatta and Susan Van Baerle

As much as we would like to control her, Mother Nature usually wins. Successional plants will stay around for a few years, then suddenly disappear. Some plants haphazardly move around, either reseeding or spreading by rhizome, and other plants mature and become much larger than we anticipated. Trees grow and trees die, changing the light and conditions.  

This guided tour and workshop is at the Minneapolis home of Wild Ones member,  Julia Vanatta. Her garden is a 20 plus year experiment and laboratory of gardening with native plants, incorporating rain and ground water into the designs. We'll review the garden as it is today and discuss how it has evolved over the years. 

Julia will be joined by retired landscape designer, Susan Van Baerle. While the host garden is clay, Susan's garden in East Bloomington is sandy loam mix. Her experience with a different ecosystem will add another perspective. 

Following each 30 minute tour there will be an open discussion based on the participant questions. We'll share tips about planning a garden that has room to evolve and how to work with Mother Nature.  

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Class is open to newcomers and experienced gardeners, along with landscape designers who are new to gardening with native plants. Workshop is free and open to the public. Address will be provided in confirmation email. 

Offering three dates and times to choose from. Limit of 20 participants per session. Severe weather makeup date will be on Monday, August 21, time TBD. 

Click here to attend on Wednesday, August 16, 6:30 to 7:45 pm

Click here to attend on Thursday, August 17, 2:00 to 3:15 pm

Click here to attend on Friday, August 18, 9:30  to 10:45 am

 
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS 

Julia Vanatta has been a homeowner in Minneapolis since late 1970s. Getting serious about gardening over 20 years ago, she uses her own gardens to experiment and learn all she can about native plants and the wildlife they support, especially insects. Julia has been active as a leader in various capacities for Wild Ones Twin Cities for many years. More recently she started the Facebook group, Native Plant Gardens in the Upper Midwest, a discussion group where members engage in an exchange of ideas and practices for local ecosystem gardening.

Susan Van Bearle is a retired landscape designer. Her recent work includes working to help restore and maintain the land managed by Bush Lake Chapter of Izaak Walton Leagure. She has also written a blog about her own garden, read more here.

Instructors | Julia Vanatta and Susan Van Baerle

As much as we would like to control her, Mother Nature usually wins. Successional plants will stay around for a few years, then suddenly disappear. Some plants haphazardly move around, either reseeding or spreading by rhizome, and other plants mature and become much larger than we anticipated. Trees grow and trees die, changing the light and conditions.  

This guided tour and workshop is at the Minneapolis home of Wild Ones member,  Julia Vanatta. Her garden is a 20 plus year experiment and laboratory of gardening with native plants, incorporating rain and ground water into the designs. We'll review the garden as it is today and discuss how it has evolved over the years. 

Julia will be joined by retired landscape designer, Susan Van Baerle. While the host garden is clay, Susan's garden in East Bloomington is sandy loam mix. Her experience with a different ecosystem will add another perspective. 

Following each 30 minute tour there will be an open discussion based on the participant questions. We'll share tips about planning a garden that has room to evolve and how to work with Mother Nature.  

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Class is open to newcomers and experienced gardeners, along with landscape designers who are new to gardening with native plants. Workshop is free and open to the public. Address will be provided in confirmation email. 

Offering three dates and times to choose from. Limit of 20 participants per session. Severe weather makeup date will be on Monday, August 21, time TBD. 

Click here to attend on Wednesday, August 16, 6:30 to 7:45 pm

Click here to attend on Thursday, August 17, 2:00 to 3:15 pm

Click here to attend on Friday, August 18, 9:30  to 10:45 am

 
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS 

Julia Vanatta has been a homeowner in Minneapolis since late 1970s. Getting serious about gardening over 20 years ago, she uses her own gardens to experiment and learn all she can about native plants and the wildlife they support, especially insects. Julia has been active as a leader in various capacities for Wild Ones Twin Cities for many years. More recently she started the Facebook group, Native Plant Gardens in the Upper Midwest, a discussion group where members engage in an exchange of ideas and practices for local ecosystem gardening.

Susan Van Bearle is a retired landscape designer. Her recent work includes working to help restore and maintain the land managed by Bush Lake Chapter of Izaak Walton Leagure. She has also written a blog about her own garden, read more here.

Instructors | Julia Vanatta and Susan Van Baerle

As much as we would like to control her, Mother Nature usually wins. Successional plants will stay around for a few years, then suddenly disappear. Some plants haphazardly move around, either reseeding or spreading by rhizome, and other plants mature and become much larger than we anticipated. Trees grow and trees die, changing the light and conditions.  

This guided tour and workshop is at the Minneapolis home of Wild Ones member,  Julia Vanatta. Her garden is a 20 plus year experiment and laboratory of gardening with native plants, incorporating rain and ground water into the designs. We'll review the garden as it is today and discuss how it has evolved over the years. 

Julia will be joined by retired landscape designer, Susan Van Baerle. While the host garden is clay, Susan's garden in East Bloomington is sandy loam mix. Her experience with a different ecosystem will add another perspective. 

Following each 30 minute tour there will be an open discussion based on the participant questions. We'll share tips about planning a garden that has room to evolve and how to work with Mother Nature.  

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Class is open to newcomers and experienced gardeners, along with landscape designers who are new to gardening with native plants. Workshop is free and open to the public. Address will be provided in confirmation email. 

Offering three dates and times to choose from. Limit of 20 participants per session. Severe weather makeup date will be on Monday, August 21, time TBD. 

Click here to attend on Wednesday, August 16, 6:30 to 7:45 pm

Click here to attend on Thursday, August 17, 2:00 to 3:15 pm

Click here to attend on Friday, August 18, 9:30  to 10:45 am

 
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS 

Julia Vanatta has been a homeowner in Minneapolis since late 1970s. Getting serious about gardening over 20 years ago, she uses her own gardens to experiment and learn all she can about native plants and the wildlife they support, especially insects. Julia has been active as a leader in various capacities for Wild Ones Twin Cities for many years. More recently she started the Facebook group, Native Plant Gardens in the Upper Midwest, a discussion group where members engage in an exchange of ideas and practices for local ecosystem gardening.

Susan Van Bearle is a retired landscape designer. Her recent work includes working to help restore and maintain the land managed by Bush Lake Chapter of Izaak Walton Leagure. She has also written a blog about her own garden, read more here.

Wild Ones is an educational non-profit with a mission to inform community members about the value of native plants, whether in our gardens, local parks or natural areas.

Minnesota Wild Ones chapters receive many requests to set up and staff educational tables at local and regional events. Next up on the calendar is the Minnesota State Fair (Aug 30-31) and Monarch Festival (Sept 9). We would also like members to staff educational outreach tables at each of our chapter events.

This workshop is to help Wild Ones members become more comfortable sharing Wild Ones mission. We'll review all the resources we offer and provide suggestions on how to answer frequently asked questions. The goal is for Wild Ones Twin Cities to have a pool of members we can call on to staff educational outreach tables throughout the year.

Workshop is free. RSVP via email to [email protected].

15th Annual Monarch Festival - Festival de la Monarca
The next Minneapolis Monarch Festival will occur on Saturday, September 9th, 2023, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The Festival celebrates the monarch butterfly amazing 2,300 mile migration from Minnesota to Mexico with music, food, dance, hands-on art, native plant sales and plenty of opportunities to get up close with monarch butterflies, learn about their habitats, and what you can do to make a difference.

The Festival will be held just east of the Lake Nokomis Community Center in the area bounded by E. Minnehaha Parkway, Woodlawn Boulevard, and E. Nokomis Parkway. Map & Directions.

Like Monarch Butterfly this time of year, we are busy! The festival is coordinating with our artist friends and science colleagues to bring you activities and learning opportunities at the 2023 Monarch Festival.

Cultivate wild at home
An event where you can learn about native plants and how you can engage in habitat restoration in your yard one seedling at a time.
Food Trucks, Door Prizes, Children's Activities, Sustainability Resources, Presenters, and more!
Learn about creating habitat, learn about local wildlife & win free native plants!
Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreters Available

Stephen Saupe

Professor emeritus, joint biology department, College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. 

In May 2023, members of St Cloud and Twin Cities chapters learned a lot about our prairie and woodlands at a guided tour of St John's Arboretum led by Stephen Saupe. We are delighted to welcome him to Wood Lake Nature Center to kick off our fall winter and spring program season.

 
Stephen will talk about the natural history of trees and shrubs, including stories about some of his favorite trees, such as honey locust, catalpa, cherries and walnut/butternut. His presentation will also focus on how to identify common woody plants and with descriptions of some of our the most common street trees. 

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Stephen Saupe is a professor emeritus from the joint Biology Department of the College of St. Benedict and Saint John's University, where he taught for more than 40 years. A broadly trained botanist, Stephen wrote a monthly column on popular botanical topics for the St. Cloud Times and is one of the maple syrup makers at Saint John's.

Join Wild Ones Honorary Director Heather Holm as she explores the nesting habitats, life cycles, pollen collection, brood rearing, and general characteristics of some of the most common native bees in eastern North America, while highlighting the pollination of native plants and the mutualism between native plants and native bees.

When creating and managing thriving habitats for native bees, many factors such as seasonal phenology, nesting strategies, and flower preferences must be considered—and with approximately 3,600 species in North America (north of Mexico), there are many unique aspects to keep in mind when managing successful landscapes for bees. 

Co-hosts | Wild Ones Arrowhead, Wild Ones St Croix Oak Savanna and Wild Ones Big River Big Woods

Natural landscapes in the US and Canada have been drastically altered by human activities such as infrastructure development, logging, overgrazing, introduction of invasive species, and fire suppression. However, prior to Euro-American settlement, highly functional and biodiverse oak and/or pine grassland systems dominated throughou much of the continent. With the current threat of climate change, it is crucial to understand the past and present ecological conditions of these landscapes to inform future restoration efforts.

The presentation will look into the past to understand grassland systems at the time of Euro-American settlement and discuss how Native Americans managed and influenced the composition of these grassland systems with their regular use of fire. Heather will also discuss the impacts of fire as a strong selective pressure on keystone plants and bees. Pivoting to look into the future using projected climate modeling, Heather will address the ecological conditions today, focusing on oak ecosystems and grasslands, then paint a picture of what a functional, biodiverse, and resilient landscape may look like in the future, and what actions are needed to achieve these outcomes.

 
ABOUT THE PRESENTER 

Heather Holm is a biologist, pollinator conservationist, and award-winning author. She passionately informs and educates audiences nationwide, through her writing and many presentations, about the fascinating world of native pollinators and beneficial insects, and the native plant communities that support them.

Heather is the author of four books: Pollinators of Native Plants (2014), Bees (2017), Wasps (2021), and Common Native Bees of the Eastern United States (2022). Both Bees and Wasps have won multiple book awards including the American Horticultural Society Book Award (2018 and 2022 respectively). Heather’s expertise includes the interactions between native pollinators and native plants, and the natural history and biology of native bees and predatory wasps. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and many local publications. Heather is also an accomplished photographer and her pollinator photos are frequently featured in print and electronic publications.

More details coming soon!

Join us for an enlightening webinar featuring authors, Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox, as they present their latest book, "The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants." This comprehensive compendium is a treasure trove of knowledge for gardeners looking to incorporate native prairie plants into their landscapes. Neil and Hilary will delve into the making and application of this essential guide, sharing rich historical and ecological insights about prairie ecosystems, all while showcasing stunning images of prairie flora.