Upcoming Events

Join Wild Ones for a spring flower hike at Raccoon Creek State Park Wildflower Reserve, led by Chris Kosin. The 314-acre tract, originally purchased in 1962 by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, contains one of the most biodiverse and unique stands of wildflowers in Pennsylvania. More than 700 species of plants can be found along the 4.5 miles of trails, between a variety of habitats including oak-hickory forest, pine plantations, meadows, and riparian forest. Late April will provide us with beautiful native blooms like trout lily, hepatica, bluebells, phlox, larkspur, trillium, Dutchman’s breeches, and more!

Please register below to attend this walk. As you embark on this spring flower hike, ensure you are prepared for a delightful journey amidst nature’s vibrant tapestry. Bring comfortable walking shoes, and be aware there may be mud. Bring a water bottle and a light snack if you’d like. Dress in layers, as spring weather can be unpredictable. Embrace the joy of discovery and immerse yourself in the blossoming wonders of the season!

Later this month, Wild Ones members, members of the Garden Club of Allegheny County’s Native Plant Initiative, and DCNR will join forces to tidy up and install more native plants at Point State Park. Work will take place April 23rd, 24th, and 25th from 9AM to 2PM, with the greatest need being April 24th. You can commit to just a few hours, or the entire day. We are excited to work together with these great organizations, to beautify a featured public space in our city.

We hope to be able to provide 20 volunteers (each day) to this project, and we hope that you’ll consider lending a hand. Carpooling is encouraged, and information on free parking will be supplied to registered volunteers.

Point State Park will supply any gardening tools such as rakes, wheelbarrows, plant disposal bags, etc.

Please bring with you:

Proper clothing for the weather
Water bottle
A lunch (if attending on Tuesday or Thursday) see below
A hat or other sun protection
Optional items to bring include:

Gardening Gloves
Personal gardening tools
Kneepads
What to Expect:

Help spread soil and mulch throughout the park (provided by DCNR)
Plant native plants (provided by GCAC)
Various clean up tasks
Good opportunities for community building
If attending Wednesday, LUNCH! Please let us know of any dietary restrictions, as DCNR will be providing lunch. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to [email protected] and we will do our best to resolve any questions.
Please RSVP by Monday, April 15, 2024.

We hope you'll join us as we host a table for Friend's of Mellon Park's 4th Annual Arbor Day celebration. The family-friendly event will once again feature lots of FREE activities for all ages. 

Join Tamara O'Brien to hike at Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area in Butler County. In the spring this 1.5-mile loop trail leads hikers through a tour of Virginia bluebells, spring-beauty, trout-lily, and white trillium. We can't wait to see what will be blooming! This area is often home to vernal pools, which provide breeding habitat for amphibians. LIMITED CAPACITY! Register quickly

The McMullen House Bed & Breakfast Garden is a native plant and butterfly garden that surrounds the house and is about a third of an acre in size.  The garden began mostly as lawn and has been planted section by section.  It is designed to host many different species of butterflies and insects and provide habitat for other animals.  Highlights include the milkweeds for monarch butterflies, violets (Viola spp.) that are planted around the house, goldenrods (Solidago spp.) for late season insects, and the moss lawn for fireflies.

Robert Coxe, one of the owners of the Bed & Breakfast, received his undergraduate degree in Plant Taxonomy and Systematics from UNC-Asheville, his Masters degree in Ecology at UNC-Charlotte, and worked on his PhD in Forest Ecology at West Virginia University. Robert has worked as a Research Scientist at the Biota of North America Program (BONAP), Ecologist at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and as the State Ecologist of Delaware.  Robert currently has a blog about native plants and butterfly gardens at (https://shop.mcmullenhouse.com) and has a web design firm, Silphium Design LLC (https://silphiumdesign.com), that specializes in websites for environmental organizations and businesses.

This garden tour  will be followed by a 1pm Hike at Oil Creek State Park w/ WPA Botanical Society (https://www.botsocwpa.org/).

Please note the all garden tours require registration. Many of these tours will fill quickly! Preference will be given to our members, but we will leave spots open to the public whenever possible. Thank you for your support!

Ryan Gott’s Garden Tour

Location: Etna, PA

Date: June 1st

Time: 10am

I have been gardening with plants native to southwestern Pennsylvania since 2018. My small 0.1 acres was originally all turf and overgrowth of unkempt European roses, hostas, and bramble in 2019. I have since removed around 70% of the lawn to make space for the homes of over 160 different native plant species. Overall, at least 90% of my plants are native plants. The plants have brought back an enormous diversity of animal life to the space as the plants are the source of food, shelter, and nesting sites. The plants of course also create the organic matter building the soil and all its flora and fauna. And in return the animals spread the plant’s seeds and the fungi build the nutrition in the soil as they recycle.

I focus on a sustainably regenerative and systems-minded garden philosophy. In other words, I try to listen to these microcosm communities to discern what they would do and how they would behave naturally. They take care of themselves and each other to survive out in the wild - they certainly should be able to in a garden. You just have to know when and how to help. I try to assist the plants in achieving what they would if a person hadn’t put them in a yard. For example, I stopped removing anything from the garden. Everything is mulched in place if it falls on its own. Before that point, old stems are left to help form the perennial scaffolding that forms an important part of the architecture that supports plants and especially their heavy flowers. Just how it would be outside of a garden.

The various gardens I care for emerged out of the conditions already present. I try to limit any large-effort terraforming and instead aim to match plants to the characteristics of each site. A rain garden occupies a long low space, spanning shade to full sun. A deep shade corner has woodland ephemerals and ferns. A hot exposed site has a mix of meadow-type plants mingling around one another. Where I do get a little more experimental are places like my miniature “Pennsylvanian desert.” Rock and sand support native Eastern prickly pear cacti alongside (non-native to our corner of PA) spurge, American agave, and liveforever. My dream project in the garden is a sizeable pond with spaces designed for riparian, emergent, and open water conditions to host plants like pickerel weed, trumpet pitcher plants, and American lotus.

I also grow food for myself, not just for other animals. I’ll often grow tomatoes or other crops amongst the native plants. I recently planted juneberries and American persimmons to work towards having native fruit trees as well. I’m patiently tending to a patch of ramps started from seed in the hopes of starting to harvest in the next few years. The packed herb bed is definitely the most formal looking space among all my gardens, featuring oregano, rosemary, lavender, green onions, sage, and native wild strawberries.

My gardens are Penn State Master Gardener Pollinator-Friendly Habitat Certified, National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat, Penn State Extension Watershed-Friendly Property Certified, Audubon Society of Pennsylvania Bird-Friendly Habitat Certified (before they merged with Audubon Maryland-DC), and are a part of Homegrown National Park. I won Sustainable Garden of the Year and second place garden overall in the Shaler Garden Club’s 2023 Great Gardens Contest. I am currently pursuing Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania’s Backyard Habitat Certification.

Registration is required for all garden tours. Due to the small capacity of this tour, it is only open to Wild One's members at this time.

An email with the address, parking details, and other important information will be sent a few days ahead of the event.

Our goal is to grow and sell 1,500 native plants. We will need volunteers to grow plants. Please contact Rhea for details.

Join us for our annual Wild Ones Day @ Arcadia Natives! Receive a generous 20% discount for Wild Ones members, this day only! More details to follow.

Byron & Jean Black's Farm Tour
Location: Washington, PA
Date: June 22nd
Time: 12pm

Chestnut Farm is a 90 acre historic farm that has been significantly impacted by invasive species and deer. There are ~3 miles of trails that are open to explore and range from well-groomed grass paths to recently cleared areas that are rough and in some cases steep. The farm includes a wide variety of habitat types including some magnificent oak trees, as well as black cherry, walnut, sycamore and pine stands. It also has meadows and early successional forests. 

We are working hard to restore a healthy forest (~75 acres), and large-scale pollinator meadows (~13 acres) with a focus on promoting diverse, sustainable and resilient native species. This is definitely a work in progress that will take many years to promote a sustainable landscape. Using iNaturalist, we have documented well over a thousand species on the farm.

Registration is required for all garden tours. Address and important information will be sent a few days ahead of each garden tour.