The Rotary Club of Asheville and Bee City USA-Asheville are partnering to bring an important environmental conference to Asheville on May 17, 2025. Habitatscaping: Supporting Nature with Native Plants features the inspirational keynote speaker and prolific author, Dr. Douglas Tallamy.

Female mosquitos are human bloodsuckers and vectors for diseases! But insecticides and equipment that kill adult mosquitoes also kill beneficial insects. Learn ways to keep mosquito populations in check without harming pollinators.

This class provides an overview of the rich diversity of our planet’s 21,000 species of bees—the most important pollinators in the temperate world.

Pollinator gardens sometimes get a bad rap for being “too messy” or “unattractive.” This class explores landscaping tricks that will satisfy even the strictest Homeowners Association guidelines while welcoming a wide variety of pollinators, and persuading neighbors to join in the fun.

Exotic invasive plants can quickly supplant the native plants our pollinators co-evolved with because they often arrive here without the predators that kept them in check back home. Learning the best techniques for removing the worst actors, without harming pollinators in the process, can be tricky, but not impossible.

For the 6th year, Bee City USA-Asheville is convening a gathering of pollinator, native plant, and biodiversity enthusiasts to celebrate current pollinator conservation efforts to inspire future opportunities for collaboration.

Exotic invasive plants can quickly supplant the native plants our pollinators co-evolved with because they often arrive here without the predators that kept them in check back home. Learning the best techniques for removing the worst actors, without harming pollinators in the process, can be tricky, but not impossible.

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.

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.

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.