10th Annual Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference 2025 – Fort Collins, CO

Join us for an inspiration-packed day around this year’s theme of Beyond the Box- Growing a culture of native plant landscaping. Visit our website for a complete schedule, session descriptions, speaker bios and volunteer opportunities. http://landscapingwithcoloradonativeplants.org

Welcome and Land Acknowledgement (9 am)

Keynote Session (9:25 am): Cultivating Place: How a Garden Culture of Care for Native Plants Strengthens Places & People – Jennifer Jewell, author and host of the national award-winning weekly public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden.

There will be concurrent sessions. During checkout you will be asked to indicate your session preferences for “New to Natives” versus “Knows the Natives.” This will help us make appropriate room assignments, though you will not be held to these choices.

Session 1 Breakout:

• New to Natives: Creating a Culture of Native Plant Restoration – Jim Tolstrup, High Plains Environmental Center
• Knows the Natives: Breeding Native Cultivars: Is Artificial Selection Impacting Insect Visitation? – Tommy Roth, Colorado State University

Session 2 Breakout:

• New to Natives: A Seasonal Perspective on Community Engagement and Native Plant Availability – Maggie Gaddis, Colorado Native Plant Society
• Knows the Natives: How Colorado State and Local Policies Can Boost Native Plant Landscaping Panel

– Suzanne O’Neill, Colorado Native Landscape Coalition

-Deryn Davidson, Sustainable Landscape State Specialist, CSU Extension

-Joyce Kennedy, Director of the People & Pollinators Action Network (PPAN)

-Danna Liebert, Owner of Grounded Growth Landscapes, Board of Directors Wild Ones

Session 3 Breakout:

• New to Natives: Your Native Plant Garden, All Grown Up! – Dave Sutherland, City of Boulder OSMP (retired)
• Knows the Natives: Parks Pollinators and People: How landscape and local factors drive differences in pollinator biodiversity in Denver, Colorado parks – Nicki Bailey, Colorado State University

Closing Session: Celebration and Reflection: 10 years of the Landscaping With Colorado Native Plants Conference, a moderated panel with Jennifer Jewel and co-founders of the conference.

Join us for a celebration and sweet treats after the closing session to commemorate 10 years of the Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference!

We will have vendor booths available during registration, lunch and breaks, so be sure to join us when doors open at 8 am. Lunch will be provided.

Please note: This event will be held regardless of winter weather conditions unless CSU and/or major highways and interstates are closed due to inclement weather.

Thank you to our partners:

Butterfly Pavilion

Colorado State University Extension

Colorado Native Plant Master Program

Colorado Native Plant Society

Denver Botanic Garden

High Plains Environmental Center

Wild Ones Front Range

Susan Tweit

The Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference promotes the inclusion of native plants in our landscaping to benefit pollinators and songbirds, save water, and restore the beauty and health of nature in the places we live, work and play.

While we recommend the use of straight species and local ecotypes wherever possible, we support the use of varieties and cultivars of native species as long as their breeding doesn’t interfere with their ability to function in nature and maintain key relationships with pollinators and other lives.

*Please see the FAQs for important information about refunds.