Host Plant Network

10/20/2025

🎉 The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee project has been published in the Urban Forestry & Urban Greening journal!

🐝 🥰 Huge thanks to everyone who participated and helped make this possible!

🔗 Visit https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1lyZ35m5d85ILT to read the article.

09/29/2025

🐝🌱 Apply to join Bees on the Block: a collective planting project!

Deadline: October 24, 2025

Visit www.hostplant.net to apply!

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What if our yards and parkways supported more pollinators?

We're launching a new research project! We're recruiting four blocks in Evanston to grow native plants in your front yard and parkway alongside your neighbors.

Each participating household will host two small plots where we’ll test the survival of two planting treatments: plugs in the front yard and seeds in the parkway. We'll explore ecological outcomes of the plants and the social dynamics of block-wide stewardship. No gardening experience needed.

By joining, you’ll contribute to socioecological research, support pollinators (including the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee!), and help grow a more biodiverse city - block by block.

04/04/2022

Such an amazing lineup of free presentations by Heather Holm about specialist and bumble bees and by Doug Tallamy about nature and insects in your backyard! 😍🐝

Welcome to our 2022 Free Learn & Grow Native Plant Seminars. We are still hoping to add more seminars this year, but two of the most noted author's and pollinator conservationists, Doug Tallamy and...

03/11/2022

As the bumble bees emerge from overwintering,
we are expanding and freshening up our structure. 🐝

Check out our new website https://www.hostplant.net to learn more about our new setup and resources for the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee and iNaturalist! 🌱

For project updates in Evanston, subscribe follow Natural Habitat Evanston - Evanston goes wild and subscribe to their newsletter

03/06/2022

For some time, enlightened gardeners have grown away from contained, stiffly regimented beds organized around lawns in favor of free-form swaths of native plants, pollinators once considered weeds, grasses and wildflower meadows.

10/15/2021

Love this 🎨 by Liz Anna Kozik about prairies and Rusty Patched Bumble Bees!

10/12/2021

📢 ❗️Save the Bell Bowl Prairie! Learn more about what’s going on & actions you can take via link in bio.
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The Bell Bowl Prairie is one of the last remnant prairies in Illinois, and is currently being threatened by the Rockford Airport's expansion plans. The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee has been spotted in this prairie, along with a number of other endangered species. There are only 0.01% of remnant prairies left in Illinois. Now is the time for us to jump into action! We have until November 1 to push back against this expansion plan. Click link in bio for a page with many resources, including info about today’s public meeting, and links to write Pritzker a letter, join the Save Bell Bowl Prairie Facebook Group, and learn more about the issue.
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🎨 by .andrea