Our board is already hard at work planning Wildflower Weekend 2027 that will be taking place April 16th-18th. We had previously announced that Pine Mountain State Resort Park would be our hosts for this event. The park has informed us that they will now be undergoing renovations beginning April 1st and can no longer host our event.
Wildflower Weekend 2027 will now take place at Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park on April 16th-18th, 2027. If you are interested in helping to plan the event, please be sure to reach out to us at KYPlants@knps.org.
KNPS is taking our message of the importance and value of native plants on the road this summer. With the help of some wonderful volunteers, the Society had booths at two festivals the first weekend of August.
Volunteers from left to right: Alexandra Taylor and Viktor Halmos. Not pictured was Rachel Cook
On August 1, KNPS participated in the CRAVE Food + Music Festival in Gatton Park, in downtown Lexington. We were grouped near fellow environmental and sustainability organizations like Seedleaf, FoodChain, and Live Green Lexington. It was a great place to chat with like minded individuals and share our information with passers-by. KNPS Outreach Chair Alexandra Taylor, KNPS Vice President Rachel Cook, and KNPS member Viktor Halmos staffed the table and KNPS Volunteer Coordinator Meaghan Petix helped Alexandra with outreach material preparations.
Do you have a native plant garden and want to share? Many of our KNPS members have brought their love of native plants to their home gardens. It is so wonderful to experience how pollinators and wildlife interact with natives from the comfort of our homes. Even more so, it can be an invaluable learning experience to see species from when they emerge in the spring through the fall.
We are often asked what species are best for garden settings. The KNPS Outreach and Social Media committees are interested in your gardens! If you would like to have KNPS share pictures of your garden, please email 2-5 photos with your name, where in the state your garden is located, and any other information you would like to share to Outreach@knps.org
Here are some example photos from board member Heidi Braunreiter’s amazing garden in central Kentucky.
Kentucky Native Plant Society is pleased to announce the recipients of 2026 Pollinator Garden Grants. These grants will help the recipients purchase native pollinator plants, seeds or both to set up a pollinator garden. These gardens will allow various audiences the opportunity to see native pollinator plants and the pollinators they serve. Hopefully visitors to the gardens will be inspired to install a pollinator garden of their own or incorporate some native pollinator plants into home landscapes.
The 2026 Pollinator Garden Grant recipients are, in no particular order,
Debbie Brown, Good Shepherd Catholic School Frankfort, KY 40601
Richard Olson, Sustainable Berea Berea KY 40403
Charlie Combs, Louisville Nature Center Louisville, KY
Christine Argus, Lake View Park Sponsored by Franklin County Solid Waste Frankfort, KY 40601
Mary Jewell, New Haven Head Start New Haven, KY 40051
KNPS will be announcing the pollinator garden grant application period in the spring. Watch the KNPS newsletter, The Lady’s-slipper for details.
The Lady Slipper newsletter, and now blog, of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. In this article from 2011, Tara Littlefield discusses the rare Kentucky shrub, sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina) . This article ran in Vol. 26, No. 1. If you would like to see these and other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 40, 2025, can be found.
Sweet fern—A rare Kentucky shrub with an interesting history
By Tara Littlefield, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves
Comptonia peregrina, OKNP file photo
The wax myrtle or bayberry family (Myricaceae) is known for its odor. These plants have resinous dots on their leaves, making their leaves aromatic. Plants in this family have a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, missing only from Australasia. Myricaceae members are mostly shrubs to small trees and often grow in xeric or swampy acidic soils. More familiar members of the wax myrtle family include many in the Genus Myrica (sweet gale, wax myrtle), some of which are used as ornamentals and are economically important. In addition, the wax coating on the fruit of several species of Myrica, has been used traditionally to make candles.
So what does this interesting family have in common with Kentucky’s flora? We are lucky to have just one species in the wax myrtle family, Sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina). In addition, it is also a monotypic genus restricted to eastern North America. This means that the genus Comptonia has only one species (C. peregrina) worldwide, and just happens to be found here in KY! Of course the common name sweet fern is misleading. This woody shrub is certainly not a fern. However, the leaves have a similar shape to pinnules of a fern frond (leaf). But having sweet in the common name is no mistake. If you crush the leaves throughout the growing season, a lovely smell is emitted as the essential oils volatilize into the air.
“Coming together to discuss current botanical projects, conservation, and collaboration in Kentucky and beyond”
On Wednesday, January 14, 2026, the Kentucky Native Plant Society and the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves held our 5th annual, virtual, Botanical Symposium. Close to 200 folks were able to attend online to hear and see several presentations about our native plants and plant communities. We know that there are many who would have liked to participate, but were not able to do so. Below are videos of all of the presentations.
The Lady Slipper newsletter, and now blog, of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. In this article from 2007, Maggie Whitson discusses the botany of the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana). This article ran in Vol. 22, No. 1. If you would like to see these and other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 40, 2025, can be found.
The Pleasing Persimmon
by Maggie Whitson
With large orange fruit dangling from bare branches like Halloween ornaments, the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana L.) puts on a striking late fall display along our fields and roadsides. The numerous sweet fruits were notable enough to find their way into the genus name, which means “fruit (-pyros) of the gods (dios).”
Drawing of American Persimmon, Britton and Brown
Persimmons are common in Kentucky and occur throughout the state. The species is found as far south as Florida and ranges up the Gulf Coast to Connecticut. It laps from the Southeast on to the Midwest and peters out around eastern Texas. Like many widespread plants, persimmons have a variety of common names, ranging from picturesque to puzzling. To list a few: dateplum, seeded-plum, winter-plum, simmon, lotus-tree, Jove’s fruit, and possum-wood.
Though the typical persimmon has a trunk ranging from about 6″ to 24″ in diameter, given optimum growing conditions and plenty of time, they can get much larger. Kentucky’s champion persimmon is located in Ballard County, and is 113.5 inches around, or about 36″ wide. The U.S. champion tree is in Portsmouth, Ohio, and is a whopping 142″ in circumference and 82 feet high.
