Events

Let's tour some members’ gardens! Come explore, get inspired, and exchange ideas about our shared passion, landscaping with native plants.

We will gather at Indian Creek Nature Center at the Butterfly Hoop House, a volunteer-maintained haven for native plants and pollinators. From there, we will announce an itinerary of four chapter members’ home gardens in Cedar Rapids.

The theme of the tour is “Sleep, Creep, Leap”. In their first year, native perennials can appear to “sleep” as they focus on root development. In year two, plants “creep” with slow and steady growth. Starting in year three, plants “leap” to life with rapid growth and bold blooms. The tour will progress through all three stages from newly established to increasingly mature gardens, all shared “as is” with minimal preparation.

Please register at the link below, so we can notify you in case of weather delay, cancellation, or reschedule.

(Note: This event is members-only, however a limited number of spots are available to non-members at $10 per person. Better yet, become a member!)

Discover how ecological landscaping with native plants can make your landscape more resilient and help address the climate crisis. This webinar will highlight practical, evidence-based approaches to designing and maintaining landscapes that build resilience to climate change and support native biodiversity. Join Wild Ones for a free webinar, “EcoBeneficial Landscape Strategies for the Climate Crisis,” featuring environmental horticulturalist and ecological landscape designer Kim Eierman.

Details coming soon! 

The 120-acre Etzel Sugar Grove Farm was donated to Indian Creek Nature Center to establish an environmentally and economically self-sufficient farm, which uses regenerative and organic practices to model the future of agriculture for a more resilient, sustainable world.

After a farm tour with Jean Wiedenheft, Director of Land Stewardship, we will collect seeds for use by ICNC and for the Wild Ones Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Chapter seed library.

The farm includes a mature woodland, a pasture, tillable fields, vegetable beds, berry bushes, and fruit and nut trees. The farm team are weaving prairie buffer strips throughout the cropland and restoring the woodlands to encourage ecological diversity and wildlife.

The prairie forbs are diverse and concentrated, making seed collection very rewarding! A restroom is available.

This event is open to chapter members and non-members.
 

Annual meeting to elect chapter officers and board of directors. The date and time here are placeholders for now, but we will likely hold this meeting in November. This time can also be used to plan events in 2026.

Details coming soon!