KNPS Is Heading West!
Fall Meeting at John James Audubon SP
Oct. 28, 2023

Mark your calendars and plan to meet up with other KNPS members and friends as we head to western Kentucky for the Society’s 2023 Fall Meeting, on Oct 28th, at John James Audubon State Park, in Henderson. We will learn about and explore the old growth forests and wetland plant and animal communities in and around John James Audubon State Park and the nearby Sloughs Wildlife Management Area.

John James Audubon State Park Wetlands, video via Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.

We are still in the planning process, but the basic outline is set. There will be a meeting in the morning, from 10am to noon, with talks and updates from KNPS. After lunch there will be walks to look at some of the plants and plant communities that occur at the state park and wildlife management area. All of the talks and walks will be finalized by next month’s Lady Slipper

  • Morning session: 10am CDT, in the Audubon Theater in the John James Audubon Museum and Nature Center at John James Audubon SP in Henderson, KY
    • 10am – Welcome and KNPS Updates – KNPS Board
    • 10:45am – One or more talks on plants native to the area and the special plant communities they are part of.
  • 12noon – Lunch on your own. There are no food facilities in the park, so we are recommending that people bring lunch and we can all picnic on the lawns and other park facilities.
  • 1pm – 4:00pm – Afternoon Walks – We are still finalizing our walk schedules, but as of right now, the plan is to have two sets of two walks that folks can choose from. Walks will be led by experts who know the plants and birds in and around the park.
    • 1pm – 2:15pm – 1) A walk through the old growth forest or 2) a birds and botany walk in the Audubon Wetlands
    • 2:30pm – 3:45pm – 1) A walk through the old growth forest or 2) a carpool/caravan to Sloughs WMA for a walk in the wetlands.

The forest along the bluffs of the Ohio River is mature, almost old growth in nature with some trees more than 200 years old. At least 61 species of trees and more than 200 wildflowers have been documented from the site. The north facing, mesic forests are dominated by American beech, sugar maple, and American basswood whereas the more south facing slopes are dominated by sugar maple, various oaks, and tulip tree. At least 169 bird species have been observed in the park.

The 650-acre Audubon Wetlands was added to the park by the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation fund in 2016. The highlight is a bald eagle nest and heron rookery, as well as habitat for waterfowl and amphibians. The Friends of Audubon, a local nonprofit, has installed a wheelchair accessible boardwalk through the wetlands with plans to install more.

Summer storm clouds over Sloughs WMA

Sloughs WMA consists of a diverse mix of seasonally flooded grain crops and natural “moist soil” vegetation, natural marsh, seasonally flooded bottomland forest, and natural depressions or “sloughs,” that contain flooded stands of bald cypress lined with buttonbush thickets.

Please Let Us Know if You Are Going to Join Us

This event is open to KNPS members and friends alike. There is no cost for the event, but in order to plan effectively, we are requesting that folks pre-register for this event. If you are likely to attend, please fill out the registration form HERE. Thanks, hope to see you there!

How to turn a milk jug into a mini greenhouse

By Emilie Grace Yochim

When winter creeps in with her cold, frosty air, and gloomy, shorter days, most gardeners can only think about one thing: next year’s flower garden. Well, at least, that’s what runs through my mind. How can I keep myself busy with my garden over the dreary days of winter? Two words: winter sowing.

Winter sowing is a fun, cost effective way to prepare for next summer’s native garden. Defined, winter sowing is a way to start seeds outdoors during the winter months. It is particularly useful for any seeds that require a period of cold, moist stratification to break dormancy and germinate. Another advantage of winter sowing is that you end up with plants that are hardier, and acclimated to the temperature swings. Also, you don’t need to start seeds indoors using fancy grow lights or an expensive greenhouse! 

When to start

When to start? Most winter sowers begin their project on the winter solstice. Typically, you will start with your seeds that need the longest period of time to break dormancy. Those would be the seeds that need 60 to ­120 days of cold, moist stratification. You can winter sow as late as March using seeds that need less time or seeds that need no special treatment. 

What you need

What do I need to winter sow? Well, seeds would be at the top of the list! What “new to me” native plants and grasses would I like to add? What areas need more fillers to support the other plants I already have? Which plants did the pollinators love that I want to increase in number to support them? These are all questions you can ask yourself as you decide on seeds to grow.

Where can I get native seeds to winter sow? Some reliable sources to purchase native seeds include Roundstone Native Seed Company and Prairie Moon Nursery. You can also find native seed swaps in several groups on Facebook in Kentucky, including mine Pollinators, Poof Heads & Native Plants in Kentucky, where you can get seeds for free or a minimal fee to cover shipping costs. 

I have my seeds, now what? The following materials are what you’ll need on hand:

  • Gallon milk jugs: The clear ones work best; recycle the caps as they aren’t needed; you can also use such things as two-liter soda bottles and rotisserie chicken containers.
  • Potting soil: I tend to use Miracle Gro Potting Mix. Use whatever brand you prefer, but don’t use any that are labeled “moisture control.”
  • Duct tape: For sealing jugs.
  • Sharpie marker: You’ll want to identify the seeds in each jug. You could also place a plant marker on the inside of your jug.
  • Box cutter: For cutting your jug.
  • Drill, hot glue gun, or anything sharp you can safely use to make drainage holes in your jug.

The process

With all your materials gathered, you’re ready to start:

  1. Using a drill, hot glue gun, or something sharp, make 6 to 8 drainage holes in the bottom of a milk jug. I go around the lower sides of the jug.
  2. Use your box cutter to slice your jug from side to side, leaving the handle attached, about halfway down. Don’t cut the entire top portion of the jug; leave a few inches intact. The top will act as a lid that you can open and close.
  3. Add 4 inches, or so, of wet potting soil into the bottom of the jug. 
  4. Sow seeds according to directions. For example, you’ll sow some seeds on the surface and plant others at specific depths.
  5. Close the lid, and tape the jug back together using duct tape.
  6. Label the jug with your Sharpie. 
This photo shows the different stages of a milk jug being transformed into a mini greenhouse for propagating seeds.

Once your jugs are filled and taped shut, place your jugs in an area with sun. Moisture (rain and snow) will enter through the top creating condensation (aka your greenhouse). You can spray the inside if things start to dry out. 

This photo shows numerous milk jugs heeled in for winter.

Now, sit back and let nature take its course! Once spring is here, and temperatures warm up, open your jugs. Be sure to water as needed. If we get a frost or freeze, put the lids back down or cover the jugs with a blanket. 

This photo shows a couple of milk jugs with small germinating plants.

Once seedlings are ready to transplant in late spring, take them out of their containers, separate them in “hunks,” and plant them directly in the ground. If they’re small and still need more growing time, use the same method, but place them in pots to grow until they’re large enough to put in the ground. If your seedlings are large enough to separate, I’ll use Asclepias incarnata (Rose milkweed) as example, then by all means separate them instead of using the “hunk” method. 

Winter sowing helps us look forward to spring with the anticipation of new life growing in our containers and the pollinators that will enjoy them in the summer. It is a highly addictive project; you have been warned! I winter sowed over 130 containers last year, and I can say I likely won’t do as many this year, but then my plant pals who know me will just laugh and say, “yeah right.”

And, as always, please remember to support your local native plant growers. We need them to be successful in making native plants more accessible to the public and retailers!

Editors’ Note: You can follow Emilie’s backyard restoration by reading Replacing Invasives With Natives Is A Work Of Love.

Emilie Grace Yochim

Emilie Grace Yochim is a homeschooling mom to two teens and has been married to Philip for 20 years. Since 2019, Emilie has developed a slight obsession with pollinators, poof heads (bantam Satin and Silkie chickens), and native plants.

She enjoys educating others about planting natives and identifying pollinators by sharing pictures and information about the native plants, chickens, and wildlife in her yard. She also enjoys making terrible memes and puns that she finds hilarious.

The Kentucky native plant swap, four years and going strong

By Anne Milligan

The Kentucky native plants/seed swap movement is now in its fourth year, and this is an update on our progress. As many of you know, our swaps began in 2019 in Louisville, when some of us realized that we needed a venue to share all the extra seeds and plants from our native habitats. As of August 2023, we have 10 regional swaps fanning out from Louisville in all directions and a Louisville citywide Facebook group of over 2,500 members.  

Our newest regional swap group is also a transitional moment for our greater swap network. A young lady in Somerset stepped up to host a swap group for the entire Pulaski County/Lake Cumberland area. She envisions that group as a hub for an expanding swap network independent of the Louisville one.

Our Louisville citywide “big swap” will take place at Jefferson Memorial Forest in Fairdale. The staff offered us the Horine Conference Center for free, and for that we are very grateful. Our big swap brings together the extra seeds accumulated from all the regional fall swaps that took place last November. Regional swap hosts will be present to help guide new folks on native gardening and to check for nonnative species, which we don’t want to spread around.

This photo shows participation at seed swap event.
This photo shows participation at seed swap event.
This photo shows participation at seed swap event.

We’re happy to announce that this past year, many of us expanded into growing the earliest-blooming native species, or spring ephemerals, and we are excited to share those extra seeds in the years ahead at regional spring swaps.

Our goal is to increase the diversity of Kentucky native plant species, primarily by educating property owners/gardeners/landscapers via regional swap groups how to grow and share native species. We understand that, by doing so, we are joining  passionate groups of people all over the world who are helping to restore natural ecosystems essential for life on this planet. To keep up with the various swap events, please join our Louisville Citywide Facebook group by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/652100455295916

We encourage everyone to establish native plant swap events in every Kentucky county, administered by individuals who are passionate about native species. There has never been a more important time than now to use our own properties to restore native ecosystems, not just for ourselves but for all those who follow.

Editors’ Note: To learn how this group got started, read Follow A Growing Trend And Organize Your Own Seed Swap. Read a review of Anne’s book, “Let the Earth Breathe,” which she coauthored with her husband, Stephen Brown.

Anne Milligan is an artist, singer/musician, and landscape designer. She lives in Louisville, KY with her husband, author and historian Stephen A. Brown.

Adding to The Lady Slipper team!

Sarah Grace and Jonathan Omar Cole Kubesch proudly introduce Joseph Cole Kubesch to the Kentucky Native Plant Society. Joseph joined the Kubesch family on August 20th and has taken quickly to life on the family’s turkey ranch in Pembroke, Virginia.

Jonathan is an editor for The Lady Slipper.

This photo shows editor Jonathan Jonathan Kubesch and family.

Native Spotlight: Turk’s cap lily (Lilium superbum)

By Robert Dunlap

In March 2022, I was lucky enough to find a new population of Turk’s cap lilies (Lilium superbum) containing about 500 stems in two colonies in McCracken County while searching for spring ephemerals. Additional searches yielded five more colonies containing another 1,700 individuals, all within about 75 yards of each other.

Due to my unfamiliarity with this plant and the lack of blooms, it took a little research to verify they were Turk’s cap lilies and not their close relative, Michigan lily (L. michiganense). Dichotomous keys usually differentiate between these plants using flower characteristics i.e., tepal curvature and anther length, which is not very helpful if you don’t have a flower to examine. Several online sources mentioned two vegetative characteristics to check: L. superbum has smooth leaf margins (not finely serrate), and the bulbs are white (not yellow). The plants I found exhibited both of these features so I’m going with the Turks cap lily. This plant was found by Mr. Raymond Athey less than 10 miles from this site in 1978, so there is historical evidence supporting the L. superbum identification, as well.

That being said, some botanists are reluctant to rely on the vegetative characteristics described above and feel that positive identification requires examination of flower structures. After being moved to more suitable sites in the future, my hope is that some of these bulbs will produce flowers allowing their identity to be determined beyond any doubt.

The species name is pronounced “superb – um” as opposed to “super – bum” and refers to the flowers, which can be translated from Latin as proud, superb, excellent, splendid, or magnificent. Mr. Linnaeus did a good job naming this plant back in 1762!

Ecology

Turk’s cap lilies are classified as threatened in Kentucky by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves and probably occur in less than a dozen counties. They are scattered across the state from Black Mountain in Harlan County in the east to Carlisle County in the west. Threatened plants are defined by the OKNP as “… likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant part of its range in Kentucky.” So, the assumption is that their numbers are declining and will continue to do so in the future.

Counties where Lilium superbum occurs in the U.S.

The BONAP map (Biota of North America Project) to the right displays the counties where Lilium superbum occurs in the U.S. Light green counties have stable populations while those highlighted in yellow have populations that are small and possibly declining.

It is generally more common in upland areas along the Appalachian Mountain chain, which includes Black Mountain. So how did they end up in McCracken County and across the Ohio River in southern Illinois? Some botanists have theorized that many southern plant species migrated north and west following the Cumberland River and the Tennessee River, which join up with the Ohio River near Paducah. Perhaps the lilies travelled from the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee along these waterways over the last several thousand years or so.

Continue reading Native Spotlight: Turk’s cap lily (Lilium superbum) →

Wetland Plant ID Workshops, A Great Success!

By Rachel Cook, EEC

On June 27-29, 2023, the Kentucky Native Plant Society hosted two Wetland Plant ID Workshops at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, KY. June 27 was a one day workshop for beginners and June 28-29 was a two day workshop for intermediate level participants. The workshops were well attended with 26 participants combined between both workshops, despite some challenging weather.

Instructor Nathanael Pilla with American bur reed (Sparganium americanum)

Participants visited several areas of John James Audubon State Park and nearby Sloughs Wildlife Management area. The workshop instructor, Nathanael Pilla of Midwest Biological Surveys, focused on more difficult taxa such as graminoids and aquatic species. He took students through overarching characteristics of wetland plants, such as unique adaptations for seed dispersal by water and drought tolerance.

Henderson County, where the workshop was located, has been understudied botanically, leading to several new county records being discovered over the course of the three days. These new county records include multiple species of duckweed (Lemna sp.), watermeal (Wolffia sp.), broad waterweed (Elodea canadensis, S3), and joint paspalum (Paspalum distichum). Some other highlights of the workshop were seeing multiple state watch-listed species (S3/S4), including hemlock water-parsnip (Sium suave) and white-nymph (Trepocarpus aethusae).

Image Gallery

  • Beginner class starting on the first day.
  • John James Audubon SP wetlands.
  • Beginner class looking at Lemnas
  • Sloughs WMA
  • Wolffia sp. through handlens
  • Class at Sloughs WMA
  • John James Audubon SP wetlands.
  • Class looking at Hydrocotyle ranunuloides and other wetland plants
  • Aquatic milkweed (Asclepias perennis)
  • Class at John James Audubon SP
  • Water hemlock (Sium suave)

Workshops are one of the ways the Society fulfills its mission of education about our native plants and native plant communities. Workshops generally are narrowly focused, usually with a single instructor. Most workshops involve a mix of classroom instruction and field work, with an emphasis on hands-on experience for all of the participants. We are already talking about workshops that KNPS might offer in 2024. If there are native plant-related topics that you think would make a good workshop or if you would be interested in presenting a workshop (or know of someone who is), please send us an email at KYPlants@knps.org.

Rachel Cook is a botanist at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.

Kentucky Pollinator Protection and Monarch Conservation group hold stakeholders meeting 

By Michaela Rogers, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and Tammy Potter, Kentucky State Apiarist with Kentucky Department of Agriculture 

Kentucky Department of Agriculture stakeholders with the Kentucky Pollinator Protection and Monarch Conservation group met on July 20th at the Louisville Zoo and Botanical Gardens. This group meets annually to discuss pollinator conservation topics and projects dedicated to improving pollinator habitat and public knowledge on the plight of pollinators in our state. Members include representatives from a variety of sectors: agriculture, education, transportation right of ways, state and local government, federal government, nonprofits, private and public nature preserves, garden clubs, beekeepers, private businesses, and interested members of the public.  

This July, 65 attendees came together to learn about the Louisville Zoo’s pollinator work and hear updates from various stakeholders including the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Cave Hill Cemetery, and the Waterfront Botanical Gardens.  

This photo shows participants at the pollinator stakeholders meeting.
Photo: Joe Omielan 

After a tour of the zoo’s gardens, led by Matthew Lahm of the Louisville Zoo, participants in this year’s meeting heard from several experts:  

  • Tony Romano, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves: Roadside Remnants and Pollinator Habitat 
  • Katie Cody, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves: Pollinators in the Forest 
  • Michaela Rogers, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and Shelby Fulton, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves: State Wildlife Action Plan Insect Update and Partner Engagement 
  • Christy Wampler and Nathan Lind, United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service: USDA-NRCS Updates 
  • Michael Higgs, Cave Hill Cemetery: Cave Hill is More than a Cemetery 
  • Kat Rivers, Waterfront Botanical Gardens: Planning for Pollinators 

Stakeholders made connections with others pursuing pollinator projects throughout Kentucky and learn about resources offered through various programs highlighted by presenters. Columbia Gas and Roundstone Native Seed Company have worked to convert natural gas rights-of-way to pollinator habitat, and the Transportation Cabinet and the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves are working on similar projects.  

This year, members of this group also learned about the Pollinator Protection Program Web App, which allows farmers and other chemical applicators to communicate via text or email with beekeepers when a label requires​ communication. This app assists with EPA compliancy and is free to farmers, applicators, landowners, beekeepers, etc. 

This photo shows participants at the pollinator stakeholders meeting.
Photo: Joe Omielan 

This group meets annually and tries to find a new site each year.  Last year, they met at James Audubon State Park.  The Kentucky Pollinator Stakeholders group plans to meet again in Berea Kentucky in 2024, with a date and location to be announced later.  

Michael Rogers, Kentucky Dapartment of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

Michaela Rogers is an Environmental Scientist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. She serves as the Monarch and Pollinator Coordinator for the agency and manages implementation of the Kentucky Monarch Conservation Plan. 

After working for six years with coal companies to establish pollinator habitat on former surface mine sites and working in the queen bee season in the winters, Tammy Horn Potter became Kentucky’s State Apiarist in 2014. She collects honey bee samples for the USDA Honey Bee Health Survey and has worked extensively to improve genetic diversity of queen bees with the Kentucky Queen Bee Breeders Association. She has also worked to improve honey label information with the Kentucky State Beekeepers Association. She is particularly proud of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture Pollinator Protection Plan both for its diversity of stakeholders and for the department’s creation of an app, which coordinates spray information between applicators and beekeepers.