Wildflower Weekend 2026 – Registration is Now Open!

Kentucky Native Plant Society’s
Wildflower Weekend 2026
Natural Bridge State Resort Park
Friday, April 17th thru Sunday, April 19th, 2026

The schedule is set and registration is now open for Wildflower Weekend 2026, April 17th-19th, at Natural Bridge State Resort Park. Join nature lovers, families, community scientists, amateur naturalists, and professional botanists from across the commonwealth, as we explore the beauty and diversity of Kentucky’s natural history.

Wildflower Weekend is open to the public and is family friendly. Pre-registration for the weekend is required using the form at the bottom of this page (click here to go to the form). Admission is $10 for adults, $3 for ages 13-17, and free for ages 12 & under. The schedule for the weekend is listed below.

We are offering 31 different hikes this year! In addition to our usual “all things botanical” hikes, we have a couple of hikes concentrating on birds, fungi, general biodiversity, geology, and pollinators. This year we are offering hikes on Sunday morning as well!

We have always tried to make Wildflower Weekend a family-friendly event (kids 12 and under attend free). This year we are offering two kid-centered activities, a wildflower hike on Friday afternoon focusing on how different flower colors attract pollinators, and then on Saturday afternoon, a nature hike with fun botanical activities designed for the young naturalist. Additionally, there are several hikes throughout the weekend for beginner naturalists. We will have a children’s corner at the registration table with coloring activities and scavenger hunt available throughout the weekend. See details in the schedule below. Natural Bridge Resort Park also has a playground, a basketball court, and mini golf.

Continue reading Wildflower Weekend 2026 – Registration is Now Open!

Volunteer at KNPS Wildflower Weekend 2026!

Are you planning on attending Kentucky Native Plant Society’s Wildflower Weekend 2026 at Natural Bridge SRP next month? Would you like to help make this year’s event a fun-filled, rewarding weekend for all? If you’re interested in helping out, sign up for one (or more) of our volunteer roles!

WW is 100% volunteer-run, and can only be as great as the amount of work our volunteer force puts into it. We need volunteers to help with event set-up/clean-up, check-in/registration, raffle sales, and more!

Many of the remaining slots are 1-hour shifts helping with check-in/registration. The job is not tough, it is mainly looking up people on the registration list and confirming for them the hikes they signed up for. This is a fun job as you get to meet new and old friends who love Kentucky’s native plants as much as you do!

If you’d like to volunteer, please visit the following link to sign up for one of the remaining time slots: Wildflower Weekend 2026 – Volunteer Sign-Ups

Should you have any questions or need more details about volunteering, feel free to reach out to our WW Volunteer Coordinator, Meaghan Petix (WildflowerWeekend2026@knps.org).

Thank you again for your support – we can’t wait to see everyone at Wildflower Weekend!

Wildflower Weekend 2026 Donations Page

Kentucky Native Plant Society is proud that Wildflower Weekend’s registration price has remained at an affordable $10, even in a world with exponentially climbing costs. It is the belief of KNPS that botanical education is for everyone and financial barriers should not prevent someone from learning about the wonderful native plants of the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the modest registration fee of $10 no longer covers all Wildflower Weekend expenses, but KNPS is still dedicated to providing high quality botanical education for affordable prices to all.

Therefore, we humbly ask for your donation to help us offset the growing cost of this 35+ year Kentucky tradition.

Continue reading Wildflower Weekend 2026 Donations Page

Wildflower Weekend 2026 Logo Design Contest: We Have A Winner!

For the third year, in the spirit of bringing together creative expression and love for nature, the KNPS Board sponsored a Wildflower Weekend 2026 Logo Design Contest.

We put out a call to artists and graphic designers who were members of the Kentucky Native Plant Society in early December. The submitted designs were then presented to the KNPS membership for voting during the month of January. The membership of KNPS responded, with 110 members casting a vote. The beautiful logo featured above came out on top as the winning entry. The above design, featuring the pink lady’s slipper, was submitted by Alexandra Taylor of Scott Co., KY!

Alexandra Taylor, Winner

UK Horticulture Intern, Alexandra Taylor, takes care of tasks at Greenhouse 12 on UK’s campus.

Alexandra Taylor, originally from Milwaukee, WI, is an Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology major, Horticultural Science minor at the University of Kentucky. She is also the Vice President of the UK Horticulture Club. Alexandra has experience in the native plant nursery and landscaping industry and grew a deep passion for botany and plant conservation. She plans to pursue conservation genetics and horticulture as a career. Alexandra spends her time hiking, photographing birds and plants, and volunteering for the Kentucky Native Plant Society and OKNP. When she’s home in WI, she performs rare plant surveys for the Wisconsin DNR’s Rare Plant Monitoring Program.

Continue reading Wildflower Weekend 2026 Logo Design Contest: We Have A Winner!

KNPS Now Accepting Applications for 2026 Native Plant Pollinator Garden Grant

Volunteers planting the pollinator garden.
Volunteers planting the pollinator garden at EKU’s Science for Sustainable Living Initiative

The Kentucky Native Plant Society (KNPS) is thrilled to open applications for its 2026 Native Plant Pollinator Garden Grant. Grants of $500 will be awarded to several applicants to promote biodiversity and environmental education.

Our mission is to encourage people to establish pollinator gardens. They don’t have to be huge or even aesthetically beautiful for our purposes. They simply need to exist where humans can see them, commune with them, and learn about them.

Grant Objectives

The grant aims to foster the establishment of native plant pollinator gardens, emphasizing not only the ecological benefits but also the educational enrichment they provide. Through these gardens, KNPS seeks to nurture a deeper understanding and appreciation of native plant species and their crucial role in pollination.

Continue reading KNPS Now Accepting Applications for 2026 Native Plant Pollinator Garden Grant

KNPS Announces 2026 Student Research Grants!

Did you know that the Kentucky Native Plant Society offers small grants to help defer the costs of botanical research, inventory and native plant restoration? Beginning in 2012, the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been awarding annual grants to undergraduate and graduate students that are researching native plants and plant communities in Kentucky. Since 2012 we have awarded over $10,000 in grants.

The total number of grants awarded in any given year is based on the number of proposals received, the quality of proposals and available funding. Each year the Society offers awards of $1,000 for graduate student projects, and $500 for undergraduate projects. Awards are given for field-based botanical projects that contribute to the knowledge of Kentucky’s flora or natural communities.

We prefer that students submitting grant requests attend a Kentucky college or university, although this is not a requirement as long as the research is based in Kentucky. The grant may be used to purchase consumable supplies and materials such as herbarium paper, label stock, and topographic maps apps such as gaiagps. The grant may also be used to cover travel expenses, and lodging

The graph below shows the kinds of projects that have been funded over the years.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image.png

All Grant Proposals are due by March 15th, 2026.

If you are interested in applying for any of the KNPS grants, visit the Grants page at the KNPS website. If, after reading the grants page, you have any questions, please email them to: grants@knps.org

Richard L. Cassell (1944-2025)

Richard L. Cassell
(May 9, 1944-December 24, 2025)
Photo courtesy of James Kiser

On December 24, 2025, one of the original members of KNPS, Richard L. Cassell, died at his home in Louisville.

Remembrances of Richard Cassell
by Barry Howard

Richard was a longtime friend, outstanding naturalist and great American. I first met Richard in the spring of 1979 shortly after becoming the park naturalist at Pine Mountain State Resort Park. We spent a lot of time together throughout much of the 1980s, both in the field and with various endeavors associated with the Kentucky Society of Natural History (KSNH) in which we were both heavily involved. These were days before the Kentucky Native Plant Society (KNPS) had been formed and thus “the Society” as we used to call KSNH, attracted amateur botanists as well as other naturalists interested in all aspects of Kentucky natural history. Some of my early memories include Richard showing up at the park with a rough, hand-drawn map to a rare plant location in northeast Tennessee. After some searching and poking around we found it. Clumps of large, gorgeous orchids, Cypripedium reginae (showy ladies-slipper) A similar experience occurred when Richard arrived with notes to a Cypripedium kentuckiense site near Corbin. (I believe the former site is now protected by The Nature Conservancy, while the latter is gone.)

Continue reading Richard L. Cassell (1944-2025)