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.

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.!  

Our chapter's Book Club meets quarterly via Zoom to discuss an inspiring or informative book that relates to gardening with native plants. Book Club meetings are open to both chapter members and members of the public. You are welcome to join us at any time. 

During Book Club meetings we participate in a guided discussion led by a volunteer member of the club. The tone is friendly and informal. At  the end of each meeting participants are invited to suggest titles for future Book Club meetings.  

Past selections have included We Are the ARK: Returning Our Gardens to Their True Nature Through Acts of Restorative Kindness, by Mary Reynolds; The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, by Margaret Renkl; Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory Wonders of Nature, by Nancy Lawson, and Bad Naturalist: One Woman's Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop, by Paula Whyman.

If you enjoy reading and talking about books, consider joining our Book Club! You can register for a specific Book Club sessions through event links posted on the chapter's social media or by writing to the chapter at [email protected] to let us know you want to join the group.   We'll be glad to add you to our list of Book Club participants and send you the link to our next Book Club meeting!
 

This free in-person presentation (with a little bit of workshop thrown in) is being hosted by Go Native Brandermill but is open to the general public.  Seating at the venue is limited so we have asked people to register in advance.

Join Wild Ones Greater Richmond Chapter and Go Native Brandermill for a presentation on how to read, understand, and adapt the sample native garden design for Richmond that has been created for Wild Ones by Pete Corbino of District Native Plants. The presentation is geared for do-it-yourself gardeners who  are seeking a better understanding of how a sample landscape design is organized, how to relate elements of the sample design to their own planting sites, and how to work with accessible tools to identify and develop the “sweet spots” where the existing design can inspire your own plans and plantings. 

Co-presenters Sharon Lamberton and Janit Llewellyn will introduce the sample design and cover the following topics:
* Setting your design goals
* How to “read” this--or any--sample landscape design
* Collecting information about your planting site
* Comparing your site to elements in the sample's hypothetical site
* Fitting elements from the sample design into your landscape
* Editing your choices
* Creating your own sketches to help you visualize the customized planting

The handout package for this presentation includes downloadable materials available from the Plant RVA Natives regional campaign (worksheets and a copy of the regional native plant guide covering the Richmond area). 

Master Gardener and founding chapter member Laura Lemmon will present an overview of some of the many native plant species which are scarce or threatened in the State of Virginia. The where and the why and the how we can help these imperiled plants will be covered.  40 minute presentation plus 20 minutes Q&A.
 

Free and open to the public! If you are not a chapter member, please sign up through Ticketleap (link provided) so that we may send you a link to this Zoom presentation. 

Chapter members will automatically receive the Zoom link, which will be sent  automatically a few days before the presentation.  Update: Registration is scheduled to close on Saturday at noon - If you have registered, you will be sent a message with the link either Saturday afternoon or Sunday. Thank you! 

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.

In this talk, you will learn about the living world below your feet that is often overlooked in today's world. We will explore what living soil is through the lens of a microscope, how the plants in your yard are chatting & farming microbes, and explain how you can become a soil steward at home.

Presented by Conner Parrish, the Founder & CEO of Bloomistry, a conservation-focused garden and education company offering 300+ learning programs for all ages, beyond-organic garden consulting/installation, and organic garden products that help you live a more eco-aligned life. A passionate farmer and consultant, Conner promotes organic, regenerative, and science-based growing in suburban, urban, school, and community gardens. His mission is to inspire and plant the seeds of green for the world to become a more nature-based place!

This event is free and open to the public, but the in-person seating is limited, so we ask you to register to reserve your spot. There is no cost to register. Thank you! 

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.

Our chapter's book club is open to both chapter members and non-members, and you are welcome to join at any time. We meet quarterly to discuss an inspiring or informative book that relates to gardening with native plants. During the meeting we participate in a guided discussion led by a volunteer member of the club. The tone is friendly and informal, and at the end of each meeting the participants suggest titles and take a quick poll to select the next book.  

This quarter's  selection is The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (author of Braiding Sweetgrass).

If you enjoy reading and talking about books, consider joining our Book Club! Simply write to the chapter at [email protected].  We will be glad to add you to our list of Book Club participants and send you the link to our next Book Club meeting!
 

June 6, 10:00 -12:00 (ish). 

Please join fellow chapter members for a casual meet-up and tour of Chapter President Sharon Lamberton's "Lab" (aka her yard), which has accumulated more than 100 native plant species in beds at various states of growth.  Members are welcome to bring a guest!

If you wish, bring a light snack or beverage to share, bring a plant to share in a mini plant-swap on the deck, or just bring a bag of dirt to use to pot up some winter-sown seedlings from the "hoop house" (as supplies last; we have lots of extra pots, but we could always use some extra dirt). 

Parking is on the street in a residential neighborhood. This event is scheduled to run til 12, but if we're having fun we can stretch it out a bit longer…  

Your RSVP (registration link below) will help Sharon prepare for this event. If heavy rain is predicted on the 6th, the RAIN DATE will be  June 7.   
 

RESCHEDULED (this presentation was originally scheduled for May  18)

Free, open to the public, and geared to "do it yourself" gardeners. 

In this interactive online presentation, Wild Ones Greater Richmond Virginia Chapter Director Janit Llewellyn and Chapter President Sharon Lamberton will host designer Pete Corbino of District Native Plants, who created the Wild Ones Native Garden Design for Richmond, Virginia. Chapter Treasurer Julie Charbonnier will assist with the Q&A and provide technical assistance during the program. 

Together we'll walk through key elements of Pete's design, introduce design concepts, and conduct some brief exercises with downloadable tools available through the Plant Virginia Natives initiative that you can use to better understand your planting site, consider your design priorities, and find the "sweet spots" where the sample design can best contribute to your own planting goals.  

Wild Ones sample garden designs--including the design for Richmond--are available for download from Wild Ones at https://nativegardendesigns.wildones.org/.

Links to the downloadable resources will be provided to registered participants ahead of the meeting so you can have them handy during the presentation.  The presentation will be recorded and posted later to the chapter's YouTube channel. 

Insects are an essential, yet often underappreciated, part of our ecosystem. They provide numerous ecological and economic services that influence and benefit our daily lives. Despite their crucial importance, their populations are declining rapidly, which could lead to serious consequences. Stream scientist Leah Purdy discusses the services insects provide and the factors contributing to their declining populations. Her presentation emphasizes gardening and land management practices that can enhance insect habitat in the context of ecological restoration and residential landscapes, including the principles of integrated pest management, seasonal garden maintenance, and insect hotels. She also highlights a short list of plants that can offer good insect habitat and nectar resources while serving as vital hosts for insect pollinator species.

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.

Join Gina Serge of Henrico County's Vector Surveillance and Control team for a practical talk on mosquito control without pesticides. Local mosquito-borne disease risk peaks in late August and September, as birds migrate south and the mosquitoes that fed on them turn to biting people instead — right as virus levels from the summer's bird-mosquito cycle reach their seasonal high. Good timing to get ahead of it! Henrico's Mosquito Team uses Integrated Pest Management (IPM) — surveillance, education, and habitat-based treatment rather than blanket spraying. Gina will share simple steps you can take at home to cut down on breeding sites and bites — a great complement to a pollinator-friendly native garden.

August can be a time to take stock, both of our gardens and of our chapter--where we've been, what we've been developing, and where we're going.

For our August Zoom, we invite chapter members to call in with questions or suggestions you may have for our chapter leaders. If you'd like to help the chapter leadership plan new events in 2027 but aren't quite sure how to get involved, this also is a great opportunity to ask questions about joining our board, either as a director (nominations for our upcoming elections are still open) or by helping form a committee! 

You also are welcome to call in to tell us about your native garden progress and garden plans for the rest of this year! 

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.

This  quarter's Book Club selection is How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, by Ethan Tapper.

Our chapter's book club is open to both chapter members and non-members. You are welcome to join at any time! We meet quarterly over Zoom to discuss an inspiring or informative book that relates to gardening with native plants. Meetings consist of guided discussion led by a volunteer member of the club. The tone is friendly and informal, and at the end of each meeting the participants suggest titles to be considered for future book club sessions.   

If you enjoy reading and talking about books, consider joining our Book Club! Simply register for a session (link below) or write to the chapter at [email protected].  We will be glad to add you to our list of book club participants and send you the link to our next meeting!
 

Join us at Chirp, a specialty bird shop in a historic Ashland storefront built around 1858 — the same year Ashland became a town. Owners Brad and Lori Lower worked to transform the yard of their adjoining home into a sanctuary for native birds and pollinators by planting native species, providing water sources, and offering shelter. They have successfully brought a sense of balance to the yard and are eager to show others how easy it is to support local wildlife using native plants.

They will be joined by Mickey Albornoz, who leads Chirp's monthly bird walks. Mickey will talk about the birds found locally in the Ashland/Hanover area, what to look and listen for, and how planting native species helps support them. He'll also cover practical tips for attracting more birds to your own yard.

Whether you're a seasoned birder or just winging it, come spend the morning exploring how native gardening and birdwatching go hand in hand.

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.

This is our chapter's annual member meeting. 

All active members of Wild Ones Greater Richmond Virginia Chapter are encouraged to attend.  During the meeting we will announce the results of the 2026 election. Chapter officers will present brief reports about chapter activities and accomplishments in 2026 and will talk about plans for the future. 

We're also working on some additional programming that we hope will make the Annual Meeting enjoyable, informative, and interactive for our members! Watch for more details in upcoming chapter emails.

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.

Zoe Evans, rewilding coach and VP of Partnerships & Programs at Wildr shares a practical, science-informed framework for evaluating a home landscape, identifying its greatest habitat opportunities, and choosing actions that support more plants, insects, birds, and other wildlife.

Registration link coming soon.