Kentucky Native Collection

Kentucky ranks right up there as one of the most diverse states in our country.  From the Appalachian Mountains in the east down to the Mississippi River in the West the 1,000's of plants native to inside our borders is mind boggling.  But what is native to the banks of the Mississippi in the west may not be found in the mountains.  There won't be any Eastern Hemlocks or Mountain Laurels seen out west.  There is quite the dilemma by labeling things by being native to inside made up political lines on a map.  But to make it easy here in the Plant Market we aren't going to label plants as being native to specific regions. Instead we will resort to within the Kentucky border. We encourage you to further investigate what it is to be native, what very small or very large range some plants have, and how these plants interact with our local ecosystem.  Part of this investigation can come from our Executive Director, Paul Cappiello's 3 part series that appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal.  Below are the links to the three articles.

Part 1. "What's the difference between native and exotic plants?........."

Part 2.  "What's the difference between these 3 types of native plants........."

Part 3.  "True or false: 6 questions to ask before you choose native or exotic........"