2025 Events

This two part event features a public tour of a public garden and a member tour of a private garden.  

Cooper Park: Cooper Park is a neighborhood park located near Mary Mount University. Friends of Cooper Park (FOCP) organized and sponsored the pollinator garden on the northwest corner of the park. The first portion was planted in 2019 and two more installments followed. It is filled with native plants to support pollinators. This project was spearheaded by Wild Ones member Judy Mead and is maintained by volunteers. The garden is recognized as a demonstration site for the broader community and is used as a model for other parks within the Milwaukee park system. Judy will discuss the project and lead a tour of the property. 

This is a free event and open to the public. No need to register.

Judy’s Garden: After the park tour, Wild Ones members are invited to a private tour of Judy Mead’s gardens. This picture perfect space is a must see for anyone looking for ideas on how to incorporate more native plants into a small yard or just loves native plants. The house is a short walk from the park. Details will be provided after the park tour.

The Monarch Trail is located on the County Grounds in Milwaukee near 92nd and Watertown Plank Road. It is an important migratory flyway, not only for the butterflies, but also birds each fall. Friends of the Monarch Trail (FOMT) is proud that this trail is the host of an overnight roosting site for these migrating monarchs. However, disruption from UWM's Innovation Campus, the Zoo Interchange, new roadways and roundabouts have all limited migration potential. This area no longer contains enough meaningful habitat for the monarchs to repopulate. Volunteers count the butterflies daily and have documented that since 2006 the monarchs roosting at this site has declined. Still, FOMT has much to celebrate after winning the fight for the survival of the Monarch Trail.  Members can credit themselves for saving 11 acres of critical roost area from development. While in pursuit of maintaining this green space, they acquired 12 acres of the Department of Transportation land to add to the preserve. Through education, they were also able to convince the D.O.T. to amend seed mixes for the Zoo Interchange right-ofways to include common milkweed and late blooming nectar plants to support monarch migration.  Public outreach and education is important to these friends. Guided tours can be scheduled and such requests have increased over that past 5 years. 

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! 

Join us to socialize and connect with fellow native plant lovers!  We have lots of seeds for you to take home from our October seed-collecting activity - and/or feel free to bring any you might want to share from your yard!  Bring paper lunch bags and envelopes for your seeds; we will also have some available.  There will be a short membership meeting at 10:30 to elect the 2024 Officers. There will be no meeting in December, so if we miss you, we hope you'll be able to join us in January for our winter program series.  

Details coming soon!