The second and third weeks of May brought many more new and exciting ways to celebrate native plants across our region, including another native plant month proclamation, transplanting native seedlings, conducting a garden tour, and so much more!
Week of May 10-16
Town of Leonardtown Proclaims May Native Plant Month
The second week of Native Plant Month in Southern Maryland began with another native plant month proclamation, this one by the Town of Leonardtown at their town council meeting on Monday, May 11. Watch here (4:53-8:19) to view the reading and presentation of the proclamation.
Native Plant Propagation 2026 is Underway!
On Tuesday, May 12, we began transplanting this year’s seedlings at the University of Maryland Extension location in Gambrills. To date, we have had four successful transplanting days (May 12, 14, 19, and 21). You can read all about this year’s efforts in our recent blog, Native Plant Propagation 2026 is Underway! (which covers our activities through May 14), and a summary of more recent activities in later in this blog.
Private Tour of Front Yard Learning Garden
Meanwhile back in Leonardtown on May 12, members Liz Curtz, Mary Ann Friesen, and Patricia Armstrong hosted a presentation and native garden tour at the Leonardtown Library Front Yard Learning Garden for the Friends of Garvey.
CSM Seedbox
On Wednesday, May 13, we visited the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) seed library to help label prefilled seed envelopes for NatureFest. Chapter member Maddie Kaba created the seed library in 2025 and does an amazing job organizing volunteer opportunities for students and the community to support the CSM Seedbox. While we were there, Maddie proudly displayed her new Seedbox swag (table runner, tote bag, and mug) that will be on display at NatureFest.
Scouting America Opportunities
Wednesday evening, we attended the Scouting America Western Shore quarterly council meeting to present opportunities for scouts in Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary’s counties. From providing education and opportunities for community service, to hosting Eagle Scout projects and volunteer opportunities at community events, there are many ways our chapter and scouts can collaborate. We enjoyed speaking to the scout leaders and sharing recently completed scout projects, plus additional projects in progress, at the Leonardtown Front Yard Learning Garden.
Celebrating with Forrest Tech Students
On Friday, May 15, we attended the end of the year potluck with the students in the Forrest Tech Natural Resource Management class of chapter member Dorothy Birch.
We worked with her students throughout the school year, starting in the fall with seed collecting, followed by seed cleaning just before the holidays, winter sowing after they returned from winter break, and chaperoning their field trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. They worked with us in several of our local native gardens, including the creation of the new pollinator garden at the Good Earth Natural Food Company, lead by chapter member Amy Henderson. With the help of chapter member Becki Wolf, we also enlisted their talents to create a database of native plants found in several local gardens that we support. We capped off the year with them at the First Friday event in Leonardtown, where they showcased their original student-created interactive matching game and Pin the Wings on the Swallowtail butterfly, led our wildly popular Plant Pong game, and distributed native seeds we provided.
We are so thankful for the opportunity to work with the students at Forrest Tech and to have been invited by the students to share in their end of year celebration. We were touched when one senior gave us his commencement announcement and senior pictures. Another senior asked if she could volunteer with us virtually while she is in college and also asked if we could provide native beebalm seeds (Monarda fistulosa) for her graduation party favors.
Making these connections with youth remind us why we do what we do as Wild Ones volunteers. Our youth are the future stewards of our planet. Knowing we’ve made a difference with these students is priceless.
Tots in the Front Yard
We wrapped up the week on Saturday, May 16, assisting chapter member Deb Pence with her “Tots in the Front Yard” program. Deb leads monthly educational tours through the Front Yard Learning Garden to introduce tots and their families to the wonders of the natural world. This month’s theme was colors in the gardens, with each tot choosing a color swatch and exploring the garden in search of their color. The learning garden is alive with a rainbow of colors throughout the year , and the guided tours help families experience the gardens beauty.
Week of May 17-23
Week 3 found us back at the Dairy Farm for more transplanting, hosting our bimonthly garden chat where we provided chapter and national updates, and preparing for NatureFest.
Transplanting Continues
This week found us back at the Dairy Farm on Tuesday and Thursday (May 19 and May 21). Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay members transplanted 9 species from our inventory of germinated seedlings, including the following:
- Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed)
- Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
- Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed)
- Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem)
- Aronia arbutifolia (red chokeberry)
- Lonicera sempervirens (coral honeysuckle)
- Cephalanthus occidentalis (buttonbush)
- Hypericum pyramidatum (Great St. John’s-wort)
- Zizia aurea (golden Alexander)
And another 6 species were taken to members’ homes to transplant:
- Liatris spicata (blazing star)
- Amsonia hubrichtii (threadleaf bluestar)
- Eryngium yuccifolium (rattlesnake master)
- Oligoneuron rigidum (stiff goldenrod)
- Physostegia virginiana (obedient plant)
- Rudbeckia laciniata (cutleaved coneflower)
May Garden Chat
On Tuesday, May 19, we held our virtual garden chat. The presentation “Right Plant Right Place” was deferred to a future date, but we still provided our chapter and national updates, as well as open discussion for those in attendance.
View PDF of Garden Chat slides
View PDF of Garden Chat links
What’s Next?
We’ll be working in the Front Yard Garden (weather permitting) and closing out Native Plant Month with our biggest event of the year, NatureFest 2026! We have almost 600 tickets reserved and expect 800+ people to attend. If you are in the southern Maryland area, you don’t want to miss this amazing event. See the full schedule and register here.
New this year! We are excited to be offering free public viewings of the Homegrown National Park movie, The Extraordinary Caterpillar. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to see this beautifully themed movie documenting the little life and transformation of the caterpillar. Showtimes: 10:15 AM, 11:30 AM, 12:45 PM, 2:00 PM.
In the opening credits, it is billed as “The Amazing, Worthy, Beautiful, Cool, Fascinating, Mysterious, Mind-Blowing, Industrious, Magical, Charming, Charismatic, Misunderstood, Essential, Extraordinary Caterpillar.” And we couldn’t agree more! Cameo appearances in the film say it well:
“The caterpillar does all the work. But the butterfly gets all the publicity.” – George Carlin
“Caterpillars are the ‘meat and potatoes’ of terrestrial food webs. They’re passing more energy from plants to other animals than any other type of plant eater.” – Doug Tallamy
✍️M.Smith
Help us grow the native plant movement in Southern Maryland!
Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay is deeply rooted in native plants and cultivating partnerships, while striving to educate, advocate, and collaborate to connect people and native plants for a healthy planet. Our vision is native plants and natural landscapes thriving in every community. Check out our Events page, Google calendar, Facebook, and/or Instagram for our upcoming events. And don’t forget to subscribe to our new YouTube channel and email subscriber list!
