The KNPS Wildflower Weekend 2026 will be held at Natural Bridge State Resort Park on Friday-Sunday, April 17th & 19th, 2026. The weekend has been a KNPS tradition for over 35 years, and has always been an education focused endeavor for professionals, students, families, and naturalists of all ages.
In 2025 KNPS decided to try something new to foster a greater connection between the Society and the state’s higher education community by hosting student poster sessions to highlight the botanical (or botanically adjacent) research happening in Kentucky. The 2025 sessions were a great success, with 7 students presenting their research. View those posters here: Student Research Poster Sessions
Because of the success of the Student Research Poster Sessions in 2025, KNPS is going to host these sessions again in 2026.
Read about the poster session details and scholarship opportunities in the section below. You can download a PDF of that information here: Student Poster Sessions at KNPS WW2026
We have exciting news for all of our members and friends! KNPS is happy to announce this year’s Wildflower Weekend is scheduled for April 17th -19th, 2026, at Natural Bridge State Resort Park and the Red River Gorge Geological Area!
But wait, there is even more cause for jubilation! This year the Kentucky Native Plant Society is celebrating its 40th Anniversary! In 1986, a small group of botanists came together to form the Kentucky Native Plant Society as an organization dedicated to serving as a medium of fellowship and information exchange among botanists, both amateur and professional, to promote conservation of native plants and natural plant communities of Kentucky, to promote public education in botanical science, and to encourage botanical research in Kentucky. We are excited to celebrate four decades of KNPS with members, friends, and past board members and officers!
The event will include guided hikes Friday afternoon through Sunday, through the Red River Gorge’s beautiful natural areas, student research poster sessions, a Friday Evening Friends & Members Social, and Saturday evening presentations and KNPS Recognition ceremony.
Wildflower Weekend Volunteer Recognition
The Society has always depended on volunteers and the contributions of members and friends to accomplish our goals. Over its 40 years, hundreds of people have volunteered thousands of hours to make KNPS the outstanding organization it is. KNPS Board members serve two year terms helping to make everything the Society does, happen. At this year’s Wildflower Weekend we are going to recognize these committed volunteers. Join on Saturday evening as we recognize all of those who have generously contributed their passion, knowledge, time and labor to the society!
It takes almost 100 people to make Wildflower Weekend successful each year! If you are interested in volunteering for Wildflower Weekend 2026, please visit our Volunteer Opportunities with KNPS page.
Wildflower Weekend 2026 Logo Contest
Each year, the KNPS Board selects a native wildflower to be the focus of the Wildflower Weekend logo design. For Wildflower Weekend 2026, the Board has selected the Pink Lady’s Slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule). Pink Lady’s Slipper is a large, showy wildflower belonging to the orchid family. It has two opposite basal leaves with conspicuous parallel veins and a large flower at the end of an erect stalk. The flower is magenta to whitish-pink; sometimes the whitish pink flowers will have darker pink venation. Pink Lady’s Slipper is widely distributed across the eastern United States and eastern to central Canada, from Alabama to the Northwest Territories. In Kentucky it is found in several counties in the eastern part of the state. It can be found in several locations in the Red River Gorge area. Submissions to the logo contest can be made here until January 16th, 2026.
The day began in the Woodland Nature Center, located just beyond the state park lodge, with updates on the Society’s activities in 2025 and plans for 2026.
Dan and Judy Dourson shared personal experiences and read excerpts from their book Wildflowers and Ferns of Red River Gorge and the Greater Red River Basin. Afterwards, copies of the book were sold and the Doursons provided personalized messages and autographs. KNPS helped fund the 2025 reprint of Wildflowers and Ferns of RRG and GRRB and will have copies for sale at all future events while supplies last.
Following the updates the group enjoyed a talk by KNPS Vice-president and Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves Botanist, Kendall McDonald. She presented White Haired Goldenrod (Solidago albopilosa) and Sandstone Rockhouses of the Red River Gorge: Geology, Human History, Endemism and Conservation Success. Participants were also educated on the Adopt-A-Rockhouse Program, which is a program that utilitzes volunteers to monitor the previously federally listed White Haired Goldenrod (Solidago albopilosa, WHG). You can download the presentation by clicking on the image below.
White haired goldenrod (Solidago albopilosa) photo by Dr. Thomas G. Barnes
Mark your calendars and plan to meet up with other KNPS members and friends as we head to the Natural Bridge SRP for the Society’s 2025 Fall Meeting, on Sept 6th. We will meet in the Woodland Center, which is a short walk from the Hemlock Lodge where you can park. If you want to learn more about KNPS, meet other Kentucky native plant enthusiasts, and learn more about the native plants of Kentucky, then the KNPS Fall Meeting is for you!
We are still finalizing details of the Fall Meeting, but here is the schedule for the day (all times are Eastern Daylight Time).
On Friday, April 11th and Saturday, April 12, nearly 200 members and friends enjoyed KNPS’s Wildflower Weekend, at Carter Caves SRP! With 20 hikes, workshops, poster sessions, and kid’s activities and with many of the best botanists in Kentucky in attendance, Wildflower Weekend 2025 was an unqualified success.
Wildflower Weekend 2025 Logo Contest
This is the third consecutive year that KNPS offered merchandise with a unique logo developed specifically for Wildflower Weekend via the Wildflower Weekend 2025 Logo Design Contest. This was an open design contest to come up with a logo for Wildflower Weekend 2025. The winning design (featured at the top left of this post) is a collage of violets; the rare Three-parted Violet (Viola tripartita) accompanied by the Long-spurred Violet (Viola rostrata) and the Marsh Blue Violet (Viola cucullata). The winning design was submitted by Cheryll Frank of Scott County, KY.
We have exciting news for all of our members and friends! KNPS is happy to announce this year’s Wildflower Weekend has been scheduled for April 11th -13th, 2025, at Carter Caves State Resort Park in Carter County! Beginning in 2023, the KNPS Board decided that we would alternate Wildflower Weekend between the longtime host site, Natural Bridge SRP, in even numbered years, and then a different state park in odd numbered years. This year, our annual Wildflower Weekend will be held at Carter Caves SRP.
The event will include guided hikes through beautiful natural areas throughout the weekend, a Friday Evening Friends & Members Social, and Saturday evening presentations.
KNPS is happy to announce that we will be hosting our first student poster session at Wildflower Weekend 2025! Wildflower Weekend is a 35+ year tradition that focuses on providing high quality botanical and biodiversity educational and fellowship experiences to professionals, naturalists, and nature lovers of all ages. Wildflower Weekend will be held at Carter Caves State Resort Park in Grayson, KY from April 11th-12th, 2025.
We are looking for undergraduate, graduate and PhD students at Kentucky colleges and universities doing research in botany, biology, and other related fields in the spring of 2025!
