Ever heard the expression, “There’s someone out there for everyone?” Co-evolution took care of that for plants and their pollinators over millions of years. That’s why flowers come in all shapes, sizes and colors and so do their pollinators! 

As the days grow shorter and darker, you can prepare for spring flowers. Now is the time for marking plants that emerge late, expanding flower beds the easy way, collecting native seeds, planting trees and shrubs, and building arbors for vines.

Join the NC Arboretum for a celebration of the amazing monarch butterfly, and the public opening of the Arboretum's Playing Woods! This event will include fun for all ages, including informative lectures, craft activities and special nature play activities as we celebrate the opening of our outdoor nature playscape, the Playing Woods.

Gorges State Park lies along the monarch’s migratory route. The festival will celebrate the monarch butterfly during its migration and bring attention to the species’ declining numbers. The butterflies can be seen in late September each year flying over the park’s visitor center on their way south to the high-elevation fir forests of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, where they overwinter until early spring.

Únase a nosotros para un emocionante programa multilingüe centrado en Plott's Tales and Trails: ¡Aventuras con Carolina! Ambientado en Carolina del Norte, este libro se centra en las aventuras de Plott y Carolina, un sabueso Plott del condado de Haywood y una mariposa Monarca que acaba de llegar a Carolina del Norte. An exciting multilingual program centered around Plott's Tales and Trails: Aventuras with Carolina! Set in North Carolina, this book focuses on the adventures of Plott & Carolina, a Plott Hound from Haywood County and a Monarch butterfly.

Calling all garden lovers! Join us on Friday and Saturday, September 27 and 28 for our annual Fall Plant Sale and Market! The Market features unique plants grown in The North Carolina Arboretum’s Production Greenhouse and includes over 30 local growers and businesses. Shop an outstanding collection of annuals, perennials and crafts to the sounds of live music! On Saturday, September 28, children and adults can participate in Monarch Day activities.

Join us for a day in the park celebrating fall bird and monarch migration. There will be activities for the whole family including live raptor programs, birding hikes, and the annual hawk watch and monarch count.

Native plant growers from across the region will offer the best of the best in native plant selection and quality. for a few hours on Friday evening.

This program, presented by Brad Nelson, will introduce basic information about butterflies and some of the species common in our area with a focus on the Monarch butterfly. Brad will discuss the Monarch’s life cycle, different types of milkweeds common in our area, and which milkweeds are more likely to attract Monarchs.

The Asheville Botanical Garden and numerous local plant vendors will offer a wide variety of native trees, shrubs, and flowers for fall planting. Signs will direct customers to the garden’s parking lot and to the designated overflow parking area at UNCA. Overflow parking lot is located at UNCA at 118 W.T. Weaver Blvd.

During the Bullington Gardens Fall Plant Sale, Friends of Bee City Hendersonville will be coloring symbolic monarchs for the 2024 migration to Mexico and will have other fun kids’ activities. Pollinator and native plant info will bee on hand for moms and dads too.

Celebrate the 2nd station on the Asheville Butterfly Trail at Reems Creek Nursery. Take your photo with a human-sized Gulf Fritllary and enjoy Cajun cuisine from the Po Wagon food truck.

This class will cover everything from milkweed seed collection and stratification to raising monarchs responsibly, reporting monarch sightings, and tagging monarchs.

Join the Gardening for Life Project for the first installment of the Habitatscaping™ speaker series! More Habitat, Less Lawn: Getting Started with ReWilding Your Yard will be an entertaining and inspirational presentation by one of the most passionate naturalists in our region, Sharon Mammoser.

Join Bee City USA-Asheville to CELEBRATE the launch of the Asheville Butterfly Trail and see butterflies at a human scale! The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is just the first of 15 or so butterflies to be strategically located around Asheville and Buncombe County.

This class provides pointers on defining what is truly a pest and when and how to manage it with the least harm to pollinators. SPOLIER ALERT: Insects sometimes viewed as pests, like wasps, are among the best pest managers, and diversity is a gardener’s best friend! 

Did you know there are more than 177,500 different lepidoptera? This class explores the major butterfly and moth groups and their importance in our ecosystems.

Visit the Bee City USA - Asheville booth to learn more about the amazing pollinators that make our food possible. We’ll have a Scavenger Hunt for kids (and kids at heart) to see how many pollinator-dependent foods they can spot at the market.

Dr. Stephen Buchmann is a pollination ecologist, professor, and author, specializing in buzz pollination and other native bee behaviors including nesting biology and mate selection. Join us for an inspiring keynote about the vital role pollinators play in our world.

Athena Rayne Anderson, Ph.D., M.Ed., has designed this presentation for adults of the general public. Learn about pollination and meet our most common pollinators in WNC. The session wraps up with the fascinating concept of “pollination syndromes” and how you can use them for conservation.

Come enjoy an evening learning about and finding native moths. The evening event will be led by conservation biologist Thomas Reed.

Bee sweet to our pollinators! Create a smorgasbord of beautiful blooming plants and butterfly host plants that provide much-needed habitat for pollinators, butterflies, and hummingbirds. With an emphasis on native plants, these lively gardens are full of color, support wildlife, and bring you delight throughout the season.

Follow the monarchs’ perilous journey and join hundreds of millions of real butterflies in the remote mountain peaks of Mexico, with breathtaking cinematography from an award winning team including Oscar® winner Peter Parks. Plus, an 8 minute documentary "Honey for the Maya" by Dr. Stephen Buchmann.

Those darn butterflies, bees and beetles move so fast – it can be tough to identify them! Explore the Botanical Gardens with experienced instructors to learn safe catch & release techniques and handy identification tools.

Environmental documentary featuring Dr. Doug Tallamy and focused on educating about how and why native plants are critical to the survival and vitality of local ecosystems with a goal to inspire people to plant native plants, providing a call to action to change our garden choices to include native plants.

Join Buncombe County's Environmental Educators for a workshop to learn about what we all can do to support healthy habitats for our pollinators. They will also teach us more about our native bees and butterflies.

A story of surprise and revelation. A wildlife filmmaker spends his time during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown filming the bees in his urban garden and discovers the many diverse species and personalities that exist in this insect family.