Events

* New date! *
Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City maintains a large collection of native plant seeds to share with chapter members and our wider communities. We also donate seeds to local libraries, and give them away at events like EcoFest and The Winter Gardening Fair.

Our seed library has been growing! Help us clean and sort seeds, alphabetize the collection, and update the spreadsheet list of species. (We will meet again on January 24th to label the envelopes and fill small seed packets to give away.)

Come and help us get organized, and pick up seeds for your winter and spring sowing projects!

Please RSVP at the link below.

Note: Please park on the street, as the driveway is tricky to back out of.

Karla McGrail, a founding chapter member and Director at Large, will guide us through the process of designing and painting our own yard signs. 

If you're in need of some inspiration for your design, Karla will be on hand with examples, creative input, and some Wild Ones-themed stencils. 

Materials cost: $10 payable to Karla McGrail (cash, check, or Venmo)

Provided:

• Your choice of sign shape and/or material (there will be cedar boards, solid white PVC in 2 shapes/sizes, and reclaimed weathered fence slat pieces)
• A variety of acrylic paints, paint markers, and brushes (you are also welcome to bring your own)
• A selection of stencils
• Hopefully, a "Wild Ones" logo adhesive and/or stencil, and possibly a QR code to our website 
• A take-home jar of paint-on varnish to seal it after it dries
• Miscellaneous supplies to make things work smoothly and cleanly

You need to bring/have:

• Your best creative fun self
• Some cute and/or informative sign sayings or ideas that you might be willing to share
• A snack to share would be appreciated, but not required
• Your messy clothes
• That $10 mentioned above.

Please RSVP at the link below, as spots are limited.

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.

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City maintains a large collection of native plant seeds to share with chapter members and our wider communities. 

Join us for Part II of our push to update, document, and share the seed library!

After organizing and alphabetizing the collection on January 4th, we will meet again on Saturday, January 24th to label envelopes and fill seed packets to give away at community events.

Come and help us get organized, and pick up seeds for your winter and spring sowing projects!

Please RSVP at the link below.

Follow this link for the location, as it's not available on all map apps yet https://maps.app.goo.gl/7eLRTqUarPjkLrkh7

This annual state-wide event is sponsored by Nine Square Feet, a nonprofit gardening group in West Des Moines, who partner with libraries across the state to promote backyard food production. Free vegetable seeds will be available to all attendees.

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City  Chapter will have a table at this event for community outreach and to give away native plant seeds.

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.!  

The Winter Gardening Fair is the signature educational event of the Master Gardeners of Linn County. The day-long event offers more than 75 gardening classes over 6 sessions taught by local Master Gardeners and experts from organizations including Xerces Society, Monarch Watch, and Seed Savers.

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City Chapter will have a display table, and Secretary Eric Miller will teach Spring Ephemerals for the Shade Garden at 2:30. 

While Eric is our “official”  Wild Ones-affiliated speaker, the following classes are also led by Chapter members:

8:30 - 9:45
 • Beaded Chicken Wire Suncatcher, Speaker: Wanda Ohrt
 • Gardening with Bambi, Speaker: Karla McGrail 
 • Micro-Prairie Gardening, Speaker: Lisa Hinzman Howard

10:00 - 11:00
 • Vegetable Gardening for All Seasons, Speaker: Lisa Hinzman Howard

11:15 - 12:15 
 • Native Bees, Speaker: Karla McGrail 
 • Native Plants - Every Square Foot Counts, Speaker: Wanda Ohrt

12:00 - 1:00
 • Invasive Species and Their Native Replacements, Speaker: Nick McGrath

3:45 - 4:45
 • Native Plants - Top Ten Things I Have Learned, Speaker: Wanda Ohrt
 • Our Bumblebees, Speaker: Karla McGrail (LCMG)

With spring on the way, what’s on your mind? Whether you’re working on winter sowing, garden designs, plant selections, or simply dreaming of warmer days ahead, join us for pizza and a chat with other native plant enthusiasts.

Feel free to bring your biggest question or challenge related to native plants.

Everyone is welcome – from beginners to seasoned gardeners – and you don’t need to be a Wild Ones member to attend. 

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.

This free event for all ages features information and activities from various environmental organizations in Iowa about addressing climate change and how individuals can take action.

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City Chapter will have a table at this event for community outreach. 

Workday at Hickory Hill Park Removing Invasive Species. We will meet at 9am Saturday at the Conklin lane entrance to Hickory Hill Park.

This is dirty work digging up invasive species which have taken root in the park, like Amur Honeysuckle, Buckthorn, Multiflora rose, and Autumn Olive. Tools and gloves will be provided!

Remember to wear appropriate clothing. You might also consider bringing a water bottle and wearing insect repellent and/or sunscreen.

EcoFest is the Corridor’s annual Earth Day celebration. This family-friendly festival includes interactive educational activities, eco-products, eco-practice demonstrations in how to reduce our consumption of resources, fun ways to reduce and reuse household items, local foods, arts and free live music. 

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City Chapter will have a table at this event for community outreach. Stop by and say hello, and learn about our upcoming events which include native plant garden tours, seed and plant shares, prairie hikes, and chapter socials.

With thunderstorms in the forecast, we made the call to reschedule this event to Sunday, April 26th, 3pm - 5pm. All other details remain the same.

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Join us for a hike to appreciate some of our region's most elusive native wildflowers, spring ephemerals.

Meeting point: Parking space is limited at Ryerson’s Woods, so let’s meet at 2:45 p.m. at Iowa State Extension and Outreach, 3109 Old Hwy 218 S, Iowa City, IA 52246 https://maps.app.goo.gl/tWP89vKevQxnRngh6

From there, we can carpool 1 minute south to "Old Hwy 218 S Parking" to begin the hike. https://maps.app.goo.gl/VqyTNPfxL36HemuQ9

Early-blooming wildflowers such as Spring Beauty, Dutchman’s Breeches, Blue Phlox, Bloodroot, White Trout Lily, Toothwort, Hepatica, and Bellwort appear fleetingly at Ryerson's Woods before the Oak-Hickory woodland canopy closes.

Master Naturalist Eric Miller will be on hand to highlight the unique life cycle and ecological role of these fleeting blooms, and the crucial support they provide to early pollinators.

Please note: This event is for Wild Ones members only.

RSVP at the link below. 

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.

The Spring Plant and Art Sale is an annual fundraising event benefiting Indian Creek Nature Center. 

• Get native plants perfect for establishing a pollinator-friendly mini prairie in your yard
• Stock up on milkweed, so you're ready to adopt a monarch caterpillar at the Monarch Fest in July
• Shop local vendors selling everything you need for a bountiful garden, such as seed packets and vegetable starters
• Stop by Peter's Potting Shed to find slightly-used gardening tools, accessories, and outdoor decor

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City Chapter will have a table at this event for community outreach. Stop by and say hello, have your native plant gardening questions answered, and learn about our upcoming events which include native plant garden tours, seed and plant shares, prairie hikes, and chapter socials.

Johnson County Conservation hosts a native plant sale and speaker series. On May 3, join Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City Chapter founding member Karla McGrail for a workshop:

Redefining Your Lawn
Having a lawn can be great fun and very useful for people. However, traditional turf grass is not much use to our ecosystem, and its maintenance can actually be detrimental to the environment. We will look to the past and learn how we can enhance what is growing in that area between our gardens which we like to keep mowed.  

Program Schedule:
• 9:00-9:40 am- Native Plant Sale (Optional)
• 10:00 - 11:15 am- Redefining Your Lawn with Karla McGrail
• 11:15 am - 12:30 pm-  Native Plant Social Hour + DIY Lawn Sign Making (Optional)
• 12:30 - 1 pm- Program ends but plant sale continues until 1 pm

Speaker Bio
Karla McGrail is a Linn County Master Gardener and a board member for the Wild Ones Cedar Rapids and Iowa City chapter. She has been a self-professed "nature nerd" for as long as she can remember - since looking for wild orchids and box turtles in the woods as a kid growing up in Tennessee. She lives and gardens in Cedar Rapids where she has been gradually introducing more native plants and naturalized landscaping to their city lot over the last 25 years. 

This event is free, and registration is required.

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City Chapter members will be at this event community outreach and to answer your questions about native plant gardening.

This is a small event exclusively for Wild Ones members. 

We will meet in Nick Dallege's driveway in Iowa City to seed grasses, sedges, and other wildflowers that don't require cold stratification. (Look out for an email that week with Nick's address.)

We will provide: 
• Soil
• The chapter's seed library, which has lots of native grass and sedge seeds. View the list of what we currently have, here: https://cedarrapidsiowacity.wildones.org/seed-library/

What to bring: 
• Gloves
• Seed starting trays
• Any of your own native wildflower, grass or sedge seeds you'd like to sow or donate to the seed library.
 

Iowa City Mutual Aid and the Iowa City Public Library Seed Library are hosting a gathering to exchange seedlings and seed packets. Bring your own extras to share, learn about seed saving, and enjoy some light refreshments.

Wild Ones Cedar Rapids Iowa City  Chapter will have a table at this event for community outreach and to give away native plant seeds and seedlings.

Join us for a social meetup with other native plant enthusiasts at The Green House, Iowa City's botanical-themed cocktail lounge. 

Everyone is welcome – from beginners to seasoned gardeners – and you don’t need to be a Wild Ones member to attend. Buy yourself a beverage and we’ll provide snacks.

Feel free to bring a friend, some favorite pics from your yard or from nature for “show and tell”, and your biggest question or challenge related to native plants.

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

We will visit four chapter members’ home gardens in the Cedar Rapids area, including:
• an artist's whimsical rain garden
• a one-acre backyard prairie planted from seed in 2020.

All yards are shared “as is” with minimal preparation.

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

(Note: due to limited space in some gardens, this event is limited to Wild Ones members only. To join, visit https://members.wildones.org/join/)

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon!