2025: New challenges, great success
Organizing the scale of this type of event has it's many challenges. Each year we try to capture the attention and build awareness to drive engagement in local conservation efforts amid an often noisy and chaotic world. In 2021, we did our best but flopped with low attendance due to a ticket system intended moderate crowd size during COVID. In 2022, months before the event, we got double booked at our venue and switched to the Chelsea Fairgrounds, which had it's benefits! In 2024, we had staff turn-over and our team had to re-delegate to keep event operations smooth.
And this year was no different with a host of new challenges: federal funding headaches, wildfire smoke challenging public health, multiple key staff members transitioning to other career paths, and an increasing number of other native plant sales preceding the event (good problem!). It is always a gamble and labor of love for us to organize this event, and hedge our bets on bringing together over 15 native plant nurseries to provide a unique shopping and learning opportunity to our community in Washtenaw and the greater southeastern Michigan region.
The hard work and persistence continues to pay off as the community came out strong, with over 2,486 attendees choosing to spend their day learning and investing in native landscapes, exceeding our previous max of 2250. This included a record breaking 531 Early Bird ticket sales to folks who wanted first access during 8am-9am, before the event opened for free at 9am.
See the Photos on Facebook! (coming soon)
Thanks to Monjoa of Fako Media for the expert photography!