About the contest: At the end of the year, we send holiday cards to our paid members, and we would like to get you all involved! For our December 2025 card, we would love to choose a photo from aWest Cook Wild Ones paid member. Our 2025 holiday card will feature the winning photograph with […] Continue reading "2025 Photo Contest: Native Plants in Winter"
New Year’s Resolutions West Cook Wild Ones Style –By Byron Lanning New Year’s resolutions don’t always need to be about self-improvement. How about some planet-improvement resolutions? For instance, readers of the New York Times sent in their ideas for resolutions to help the planet. Here are some West Cook Wild Ones’ resolutions for planet Earth. […] Continue reading "New Year’s Resolutions West Cook Wild Ones Style"
Announcing: Recipients of Garden for Nature Grant West Cook Wild Ones launches its 2020 Garden for Nature program by announcing grants totaling more than $4,500 to 14 nonprofit and public organizations in the Chicago area. About the grant and the process: Garden for Nature funds projects mainly in western Cook County that engage young people […] Continue reading "Announcing: Recipients of Garden for Nature Grant"
Native pollinators are a very important and diverse group of animals with fascinating ecologies; unfortunately, few people are aware of them and their importance because of the media’s focus on honeybees. Despite the many articles written about colony collapse, honeybees are not going extinct. Their issues are not ones of conservation, but instead are ones […] Continue reading "Native Pollinator Garden Basics for the Chicago Region"
Birds, Bees, and Butterflies: A Native Garden Tour Saturday, August 10, 2019 1:00–4:00 PM Are you curious about native plant gardening? Join us on Saturday, August 10, to see gardens brimming with life and beauty and talk with the gardeners who created them. Birds, Bees and Butterflies: A Native Garden Tour, sponsored by West Cook […] Continue reading "2019 Garden Tour"
Fayette Aurelia Nichols gave an information-packed presentation to us on May 20 based on her extensive research and experience with this bumblebee. Not only did we learn some basics about bumblebees in general, but Aurelia gave us some very specific information to help the Rusty-patched Bumblebee. The Rusty-patched Bumblebee was a very abundant species at […] Continue reading "Recap of Creating Healthy Habitat for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee"
West Cook Wild Ones loves science– scientists explain the world to us and impact many parts of our lives. One of these areas is our own yards or landscapes in which we we work or live. Science is telling us that even if we are in an urban area, our yards are incredibly important, providing […] Continue reading "Standing for Science in Your Yard"
Resources to Learn about Harvesting Milkweed Seeds This post provides links to articles that help us with learning about harvesting and sharing milkweed seeds. Many of the tips and tricks are applicable to other types of seeds. If you’ve grown milkweed, your plant is probably developing pods. Rose Milkweed (Ascelpias incarnata) might have already […] Continue reading "Resources to Learn about Harvesting Milkweed Seeds"
Milkweed cosmos: A colony of milkweed is almost its own world. Most of us have planted milkweed to attract and support the Monarch butterfly, but eventually the other insects that are dependent on it find our milkweed patches. On the one hand, these bugs are just doing what they’re supposed to be doing–living off […] Continue reading "Milkweed Cosmos"
If you ordered a Monarch Garden Kit or are new to gardening, this “How-to” sheet might be helpful. Monarch Garden Planting Tips Thank you for purchasing one of the Monarch Kits! The plants will need a little TLC for a few weeks while they get settled and their root systems get established. Weve written up […] Continue reading "Monarch Garden Planting Tips"