Chapters in Colorado

Please join Ayn Schmit, as we … 

Jump In the Deep End of Native Plant Gardening!  WOFR’s Beginner’s Guide for Growing Native Plants

We’ll cover everything you need to know to get started with native plant gardening, including design, site prep, plant selection, planting and maintaining your new landscape.

We’ll explore these topics as they are covered in WOFR’s brand new Beginner’s Guide. We’ll highlight some of the specific plants we recommend for those new to native plant gardening.

And finally, we’ll talk about the big picture of creating and maintaining an ecologically beneficial garden using all the principles of sustainable gardening. We’ll have plenty of time for Q & A during and following the presentation.

PRESENTER: Ayn Schmit, WOFR Board Member and career environmental scientist. Ayn almost completed a degree in horticulture decades ago before falling in love with environmental science and policy and pursuing a 40-year career with EPA, mostly in water quality and watershed management. After retiring, she was lucky enough to fall in with the native plant enthusiasts and experts at Wild Ones Front Range Chapter and has been growing and learning about Colorado (and now California!) native plants ever since.

She led the development of WOFR’s new Beginner’s Guide and is working with an amazing group of volunteers to bring to life a WOFR native plant demonstration in northwest Denver.

Once registered, we will send registrants the Zoom link in the program reminder email a few days before the webinar. All registrants will receive the recording about a week after the webinar, even if you can't make it live!

Member - $5 Nonmember - $25

Please consider joining the Wild Ones Front Range Chapter if you are not a member (only $40/year), so you can access member benefits!

Registration will close on Tuesday, Nov.10th at midnight -please register before then!

Free Seed Swap! No matter your gardening experience, you’ll find something of interest at the WOFR Pikes Peak Region 2026 Native Plant Seed Share. This is a free event. There will be a variety of Pikes Peak regional native seeds including annuals, perennials, shrubs, and grasses ranging from easy-to-difficult to propagate.  Find seeds of native plants to add to your garden—for free!  You do not need to bring seeds to participate.

Want to contribute?  Donate your seeds prior to the event by contacting  [email protected]  OR bring your seeds to the share and volunteers will catalogue and stock them for future seed shares.

Remember… please collect your native seeds responsibly!  For more information on collecting seeds responsibly go to https://nanps.org/seed-collecting/

Participating Organizations:

Front Range Wild Ones: https://frontrange.wildones.org/pikes-peak-seed-swap/

Manitou Seed Library: https://www.facebook.com/ManitouSeedLibrary/

Questions?  Contact [email protected] 

We hope you can join us! We’ll have a variety of seed including annuals, perennials,  grasses, shrubs, and trees. We will also have information about how to grow native seed. You don't need to bring seed to attend the event or bring home seed.

If you do have native seed to share, please label each species with this information:
* Botanical Name
* Common Name
* Collection City or County, Elevation, and Year 
* Your First Initial and Last Name
* If your seed is from a wild population rather than a garden site, add “WILD”

We happily accept seed from species native to Colorado and adjacent states. Please avoid cultivars, which might not support native pollinators and wildlife. We do NOT accept seeds from plants designated as noxious weeds.

You can drop off seed before the event in Fort Collins or Longmont. Email [email protected] to coordinate. If you plan to bring seed the day of the event, email the species name(s) to [email protected] ahead of time so that we can prepare information for attendees about your seed.

We’re looking for 6 volunteers across 2 shifts to represent the Northern Region at the event. Volunteers will help educate attendees on how to grow native plants from seed. Click here to learn more and to sign up.

Bring your seed heads and kitchen equipment like funnels, colanders, mixing bowls, sieves, cookie sheets and anything else you find useful.  (Not sure? Get in touch!  We will also have extra!) This is a good time to bring seeds to clean, although there will be extra. We will demonstrate “how to”--prior experience is not necessary--please join us. We are also collecting nursery pots and trays for reuse. This is a social event, a friendly event, a kid-friendly event (with supervision), and a mostly seated event.  If you have questions, please get in touch with one of the Boulder/Broomfield Counties regional coordinators.

Join us for an overview of home propagation of native plants from seeds.  Members will cover what to do with all of those seeds you've picked up from the Wild Ones Front Range seed swaps!

Presenters will include Kristine Johnson (Boulder/Broomfield), Eric Johnson (Boulder/Broomfield), Sue Parilla (JeffCo), Zoe Turin (Boulder/Broomfield), Nora Maus (Denver/Aurora Metro), Pam Schulz (Douglas/Elbert), Karen Miller (Northern), and Mike Artmann (Boulder/Broomfield).

Topics to be covered include: 

-A brief introduction to Jan Midgley's Germination Guide
-Media ("soil") to use

-Containers

-Stratification and scarification
-Winter sowing:  jugs

-Winter sowing: bags

-Refrigerator stratification
-Direct seeding in pots outside
-Using Lights indoors to get plants started

-Overview of a home propagation set up

QUESTIONS - Be sure to submit your propagation question before the webinar. 

Limited spaces left, registration closing on Monday, Nov. 30th @ 11pm

Once registered, the Zoom link will be provided a couple of days before the webinar in the reminder email.