Past Events

October is a busy time for monarch butterflies as they undergo their fall migration from Eastern North America to Mexico.  Western North Carolina is a pit stop for some of these travelers. Celebrate these colorful creatures with an amazing collection of activities and events.  Blue Ridge Naturalist instructor, Dan Lazar, is scheduled to speak.

Visit the Blue Ridge Community College Horticulture Program’s Fall Plant Sale being held as part of Farm City Day at Jackson Park.  Mums, fall asters, violas, pansies, mixed fall planters, perennials, shrubs, trees and succulents are perfect for gift giving. Many natives to support pollinators will also be available, including several hard-to-find species.

Celebrate the monarch butterfly during its migration and bring attention to the species’ declining numbers. Gorges State Park lies along the monarch’s migratory route. 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.

Join Patchwork Meadows in Black Mountain for peak monarch migration viewings. 

Shop for all your favorite perennials, shrubs, trees and so much more at Bullington’s annual fall plant sale.

Join Patchwork Meadows in Black Mountain for peak monarch migration viewings. 

Live music, education activities celebrating our pollinators, native plants, and much more!

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Day with us at the Hendersonville Farmers Market. From the upbeat rhythms to the delicious baked goods, connect, celebrate, and share in the joy of heritage and community spirit! Visit the Milkweed Meadows Farm tent to view Monarch life cycle educational displays, purchase native milkweeds + other pollinator-friendly plants, and participate in the Symbolic Monarch Migration art activity for kids. 

Join Patchwork Meadows in Black Mountain for peak monarch migration viewings. 

Grab your binoculars because it’s migration celebration time! Our annual feathered frenzy is back, and you’re invited to join the fun.  Celebrate the magic of fall bird and butterfly migration with a full day of family-friendly activities, live raptor demonstrations, beginner bird walks, a hawk watch, and so much more. Whether you’re a seasoned birder or just bird-curious, this is our biggest birding event of the year and you won’t want to miss it!

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

Shop for all your favorite perennials, shrubs, trees and so much more at Bullington’s annual fall plant sale.

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

Garden Party Fundraiser - Dinner, Music, Garden and Milkweed Meadow tours, Pick your own cut flowers.  

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

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.

You don’t have to travel to other continents to find amazing creatures— they could be right in your backyard! They are just small. This class is to help you learn to observe and identify pollinators in your garden or wherever plants are blooming.

You don’t have to travel to other continents to find amazing creatures— they could be right in your backyard! They are just small. This class is to help you learn to observe and identify pollinators in your garden or wherever plants are blooming.

Would you like to help with pollinator conservation by surveying for bumble bees? The Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas has teamed up with the MountainTrue Bioblitz at Hickory Nut Gap Farms for a field day! We will be conducting a bumble bee survey in their native pollinator gardens where anyone can practice catching bees and learning about identification.

Bee sweet! 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 vibrant gardens are full of color, support wildlife, and bring you delight throughout the season. Even a small, dedicated habitat will call in the pollinators and transform your garden – bringing it to life. Plant it and they will come!

Meet our local pollinators! Learn about pollination and WNC’s most common pollinators. We’ll discuss conservation concerns and simple steps you can take to help pollinators. Time permitting, we will go outside and explore which pollinators are visiting Reems Creek Nursery's certified pollinator garden.

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.

The Center for Honeybee Research is hosting the Asheville HoneyFest where the winner of the International Black Jar Honey Contest will be announced. Always sure to entertain with a wide variety of live music, the Festival has a little something for everyone. The Asheville chapter of Bee City USA will be there to talk about the other 20,000 species of bees in the world that don’t make honey, but provide invaluable pollination services.

Hurricane Helene provided Montford’s garden hosts with unexpected challenges including many century-old trees laid on the ground by 100 mph wind gusts. Appropriately, proceeds from this year’s event will help replace the hurricane-ravaged tree canopy. Our Bee City table will have information to share about the plants that are native to our area and the pollinators that rely on them, as well as how to certify your own pollinator habitat.

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 limiting lawns, creating connected habitat, welcoming a wide variety of pollinators, and persuading neighbors to join in the fun. For anyone considering becoming a Certified Pollinator Advocate through the Asheville chapter of Bee City USA & Asheville Botanical Garden, this is the class that Amy teaches for that series.

Would you like to help with pollinator conservation by surveying for bumble bees? Bumble bees are an important indicator of overall pollinator health. This class will provide an overview of the Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas program, present the insightful data gathered by volunteers over its first two years, and train participants on the survey techniques used so you can volunteer to gather bumble bee diversity and abundance data in 2025.

Have you seen the native gardens at the Marshall Library? If not, you are in for a treat. On May 31 at 12:30, Bee City USA-Asheville leaders, Florrie Funk and Virginia Currie, will guide a pollinator safari in the butterfly garden for families and kids. Who knows? They might even see tigers and zebras. Tiger and zebra swallowtail butterflies that is!

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.