The best New Year’s resolutions encourage us to wonder, learn, and engage. In that spirit, Takoma Natives offers the following ideas for readers who want to learn more about native plants and sustainable landscaping in 2025.

Mount Cuba Center

Mount Cuba Center, Delaware is a botanical garden devoted to conserving native plants and their habitats. It publishes valuable research on the performance of native plants at its trial gardens.

While the gardens are closed for the winter, Mount Cuba has a robust online presence year-round.

Upcoming 90-minute virtual classes include:
• Botany of Design featuring author and native plant expert Bill Cullina.
• How to boost native trees’ resilience against climate change.
• Vernonia for Every Garden led by the Center’s manager for horticultural research.
The registration fee for each is $25.

NDAL

Pricier but longer courses are offered by New Directions in the American Landscape, founded by Larry Weaner, a leader in the field of ecological landscaping. Weaner has organized an annual symposium for landscaping professionals since 1989 and, more recently, online offerings for home gardeners.

In March and September, NDAL will offer a three-evening course on Landscaping with Nature: Turning Battles into Partnerships. When the course was offered in December 2024 for $125, this reporter found Weaner to be an engaging and avuncular instructor. Each of the sessions ran past the allotted 75 minutes to allow more time for Q&A. Weaner added a fourth, bonus session to ensure time to answer questions.

Weed Warrior Training

Learning to appreciate native plants inevitably involves acting against invasives such as English ivy and Oriental bittersweet. You can get hands-on training in recognizing invasives and how to control them by signing up for Weed Warrior workdays in Montgomery County parks. These sessions, led by county-accredited volunteer supervisors, typically run two hours.

Certification to work alone in County parks to remove invasives is achieved after completing two workdays, two online courses offered by the county, and an in-person class with Corinne Stephens, the county’s weed warrior volunteer coordinator. Add your name to the training waitlist at WeedWarrior.org.

–by Meg Voorhes