2025 Wildflower Day to focus on restoring pollinator habitats

Mar. 26, 2025 — DENTON — The 2025 Texas Wildflower Day will take place on the TWU Denton campus Apr. 24-25, and will feature keynote speaker Douglas Tallamy, PhD, professor of entomology and wildlife biology at the University of Delaware.

The theme for this year's Wildflower Day is Time to Restore Pollinator Habitats, which is particularly appropriate for the appearance by Tallamy, an advocate for home gardens and landscaping that provide habitat for native species.

Texas Woman’s University is the designated location for the annual Wildflower Day celebration.

Tallamy focuses on understanding how insects interact with plants and how those interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. He discusses managing suburban and urban landscapes as wildlife preserves, encouraging the use of native species and considering the needs of insects and wildlife when planting. He is the author of Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens.

Tallamy's appearance is sponsored by the Native Plant Society of Texas.

Other features of this year's celebration:

• Photography workshop with Sean Fitzgerald, a nature and conservation photographer and past president of the North American Nature Photography Association. To see his work, visit his website at https://www.seanfitzgerald.com.
• Presentation, Time to Restore by David Gwin, Texas state coordinator forTime to Restore: Connecting People, Plants and Pollinators.
• Presentation, How to Make a Pollinator Garden by Sheli Petersen, TWU professor of visual arts.
• Presentation, iNaturalist and Biodiversity by Rachel Richter, urban wildlife biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
• Presentation, Homegrown National Park by Krista de Cooke, strategic partnership and science lead for Homegrown National Park.
• Workshop, Get your garden on the HNP map, by Tom Kirwan, program chair for the Trinity Fork chapter of the Native Plant Society.
• Workshop, watercolors with Sheli Petersen and Jennie Wojtaszek.

2025 TEXAS WILDFLOWER DAY

Thursday, April 24

4:30-5:45 p.m. – Photography workshop, Sean Fitzgerald, in the butterfly garden

6-6:30 – visit to the butterfly gardens

6:30-7 – social and garden posters in ASSC lobby

7-7:10 – introductions: Native Plant Society of Texas presidents, TWU chancellor/provost and Camelia Maier, PhD, in ASSC 259

7:10-8 – presentation by Douglas Tallamy, PhD, followed by questions

8-8:30 – book signing for Tallamy's Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

Friday, April 25

7:30- 11:55 a.m. – posters, exhibits, in ASSC lobby

7:30-8:30 a.m. – breakfast in ASSC

8:30-8:40 – remarks

8:40-9:20 – history of Wildflower Day by Camelia Maier, TWU biology professor, and Scott Wright, graduate student

9:20-10:10 – presentation, Time to Restore by David Gwin

10:10-10:20 – break

10:20-11 – book presentation, How to Make a Pollinator Garden by Sheli Petersen, TWU professor of visual arts

11-11:45 – presentation, iNaturalist and Biodiversity by Rachel Richter

11:45-11:55 – photo contest awards presented by Jennie Wojtaszek, TWU assistant clinical professor

11:55-noon – remarks and announcements from Camelia Maier

Noon-1:30 p.m. – Lunch in TWU Dining Hall

1:30-2:15 – presentation, Homegrown National Park, by Krista de Cooke

2:15-3 – workshop, Get your garden on the HNP map by Tom Kirwan

1:30-3 – Guided tour of the TWU gardens

3-4:30 – Watercolors at the garden workshop with Petersen and Wojtaszek