Organizers are seeking new members to help get Wild Ones DFW off the ground. Photo courtesy of Wild Ones.
Oct. 17, 2024
A new native plant group has sprouted up in North Texas.
Wild Ones DFW kick-started the new chapter with a meet and greet held at the Flower Mound Library this week.
The DFW "seedling" group — a term meaning a new group that has not yet met chapter standards — was originally launched during the pandemic with an online-only presence by a member who has since left.
Kristina Dunn of Grapevine discovered the group on social media this summer and shortly after took over as its new leader.
“When I found out there wasn’t anyone actually managing it, I said ‘well, let me give it a try,’” said Dunn.
NATIVE PLANT NEWBIE
Wild Ones DFW president Kristina Dunn, right, hosted a Meet and Greet at the Flower Mound Library, along with chapter member Tom Kirwan, left. Courtesy of Kristina Dunn.
Like many of the group’s 23 members, Dunn is a newcomer to native plants.
She grew up in Kentucky, where she was a nature lover but not yet native plant savvy.
When she moved to Texas in 2019, she quickly became an advocate, inspired in part by the state’s diverse ecology and whiplash weather.
“Kentucky is full of lush, green rolling hills but there’s not a lot of diversity in the landscape,” said Dunn. “There’s not a lot of wildflowers. That’s the cool thing about Texas is how many different wildflowers there are.”
She quickly found out that gardening in Texas can be challenging.
“Texas is such a harsh environment,” said Dunn. “Stuff cooks or it just doesn’t make it or it dies in the winter.”
However, when she planted some Texas lantana, she noticed it thrived with little maintenance compared to nonnative plants.
Kristina Dunn has started a native plant garden at her home in Grapevine. Courtesy of Kristina Dunn.
Doing research, she also began to learn about native pollinators and their reliance on native plants.
“Native pollinators are living in a small radius and they have specific plants they need,” she said. “You can’t rely on the Arboretum down the street to support all the native pollinators.”
She also noticed she hardly ever saw a firefly. Not like back in her home state, where she was used to seeing fields of fireflies at a nearby nature center.
“Fireflies bring back childhood nostalgia for me. In June and July, you could walk at night through the trees and the fireflies looked like glitter — almost like you were seeing stars. It was such a cool thing, it was beautiful.”
Learning that the firefly decline was caused by habitat loss was another motivator for Dunn to develop her native plant plots.
“Fireflies are decreasing because we’re throwing out the leaves and cutting the tall grass and they don’t come back,” she said.
But since starting her native garden, she's seen one or two and takes it as a good sign.
“Two weeks ago I saw a firefly and I was so excited."
NATIVE PIONEERS
The national nonprofit Wild Ones was originally founded in Milwaukee, Wis., as the "Wild Ones Garden Club" in 1979, just two years before the Native Plant Society of Texas was formed in 1981.
While today NPSOT is well established in the Lone Star State with 35 chapters, Wild Ones has more than 100 chapters and seedling groups, located mainly in the eastern half of the U.S.
The DFW chapter is the only Wild Ones chapter in Texas, wIth some of its members located as far as away as Austin and San Antonio.
Dunn said ideally she hopes the group will grow large enough so that other chapters can branch off in South, East and West Texas — not only for logistics reasons but because each of the ecoregions are so distinct.
Dunn added that each chapter has the freedom to create its own agenda.
“The cool thing about Wild Ones is that the goals are defined by the chapter,” said Dunn. “There’s a chapter in New Jersey that did a lot of work around public policy. They wanted to change rules around native landscaping around private properties. Other chapters like to work on gardens. As we bring in more members, we can define what we want to do as a chapter.”
One of the first projects for the DFW Wild Ones is a partnership with Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area to create a pollinator garden for youth education.
LLELA is planning to apply for a Wild Ones grant. Wild Ones DFW has pledged to provide volunteers to keep the garden maintained.
DOUBLING RESOURCES
While the Native Plant Society of Texas is a popular resource for Texas native plants and Texas native plant sales, Wild Ones has a focus on landscaping design and city ordinances.
The Wild Ones website features a libraray of native garden plans, tailored to metropolitan regions around the U.S.
So far 21 regional designs have been uploaded. There is a plan in the works for the DFW region, to be created by two local landscape designers.
In addition, Wild Ones offers a landscape certification program for yards. The website also offers helpful tips for creating native landscaping standards in city ordinances and dealing with the “Weed Police.”
Meanwhile, NPSOT has been highly active in North Texas with five chapters, each hosting monthly meetings and biannual plant sales. Wild Ones DFW is still working out plans to host some local programs in the coming months.
However, the Wild Ones headquarters hosts an online speaker program, featuring experts in landscape design and ecological landscaping. The next webinar will be held on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m CST and features Benjamin Vogt speaking about Matrix Landscape Design, a method of using high-density plantings to replicate natural ecosystems in aesthetically pleasing designs. The website also posts a reading list for both adults and young readers.
Both Wild Ones and NPSOT offer scholarships and grants to fund projects, gardens and research.
Dunn said the new group is not intended to be in competition with NPSOT but rather a partner in collaboration.
Tom Kirwan of Flower Mound is a member of both Wild Ones and the Trinity Forks Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. He's also a member of three native plant groups in Kansas City, Mo., where he lives half the year.
He said there’s room for more than one native plant group in the DFW area.
“Both have strengths. Both are valuable,” said Kirwan. “I belong to both organizations and receive great value for my annual memberships. But the best benefit is that I meet the most interesting, accomplished and inspirational people from both organizations. I never leave a conversation without learning something new about native plants.”
Wild Ones Webinar
About: In this webinar hosted by Wild Ones national, Benjamin Vogt will speak about Matrix Landscape Design, a method of using high-density plantings to replicate natural ecosystems in aesthetically pleasing designs.
When: Oct. 24, 2024, 6 p.m. CST
Contact: [email protected]
Wild Ones DFW website, Facebook and Instagram
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Author
JULIE THIBODEAUX
Julie Thibodeaux is the Editor for Green Source DFW. Previously, she worked as an editor and writer at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
