Episode 2

The Legacy of Prairies with Dr. Kay Kottas

Published on: 13th March, 2023

The Legacy of Prairies

Episode Introduction

In today's episode we chat with Dr. Kay Kottas, the president and owner of Prairie Legacy, a Nebraska- based native plant nursery and consulting company. We discuss some great prairie plants to add to the garden, why prairies are important, and what you can do to help further the native plants dialog. Thanks for joining us!

Host Stephanie Barelman

Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.

Guest Dr. Kay Kottas

Our esteemed guest for today is Dr. Kay Kottas, President of the Nebraska Native Plant Society. She is also owner and President of Prairie Legacy Inc, a botanical consulting company providing environmental surveys and supplying native local ecotype plants and seed.

Kay has a Doctoral degree from the University of Nebraska where she completed demographic research on Nebraska’s Federally endangered Blowout Penstemon. She taught North American Plant identification and horticulture at UNL and Botany at Nebraska Wesleyan prior to purchasing the family farm, Witt’s End Homestead , settled by her ancestors in 1857. Today, she has converted the homestead into a native plant and seed production nursery. She continues to travel the state where surveys and analysis of native land is needed to help determine restoration guidelines and management needs.

Kay is Chair of the Nebraska Native Seed & Plant Producers, a group committed to helping people preserve the ecological integrity of local ecoregions by providing seed, plants and information related to native prairie.

Thank you, Kay, for providing some rich and interesting content for this episode!

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Episode Content

Nebraska Native Plant Society- Find them on Facebook here

Prairie Legacy- https://prairielegacyinc.com/

Purchase Details/Sale Dates:

Order Online! Get a discount up through April by typing in the promotion code spring15. Fast shipping in a few business days by USPS

Dates in Lincoln: Weekly deliveries to Lucky Dog Acres, Return of the Thunderbirds 4/1, Earth Day 4/15

Omaha delivery date late April, possibly in attendance at Mulhall's Wild Plant Party this year

Shortgrass and Tallgrass Prairies:

Apparently just because it's called a tall grass prairie doesn't mean there isn't any short grass in there. Who knew?

Aggressive Plants:

When we say something is aggressive, that doesn't mean you aren't allowed to plant them. Just know that they excel at domination. Two brought up were Maximilian Sunflower and Cup Plant, both very excellent plants for pollinators- Maximilian being great late forage for monarchs. Let your comfort level or curiosity determine how aggressive plants can be best used in your landscape.

BEE LAWNS!

Prairie Legacy offers a Bee Lawn Mix for sale but we talked about using blue grama, purple poppy mallow, and wild strawberry as well as others like self-heal.

How does one prepare a native planting?

Herbicide or smothering with cardboard/ solarizing with plastic for the chemical-averse. Just don't leave your plastic down too long! Or be lazy like me and scalp the turf grass with a shovel and weed repeatedly for multiple seasons- you decide.

Internships at Prairie Legacy

Come learn about native botany in the field or pledge your soon-to-be college student as tribute!

For current positions or internships, apply here! https://prairielegacyinc.com/employment/

Additional resources related to this episode:

What makes a plant native?

http://bonap.net/fieldmaps Biota of North America North American Plant Atlas database-select Nebraska

https://bellevuenativeplants.org Bellevue Native Plant Society

native (wild type) vs. nativar/native cultivar (cultivated by humans for desirable characteristics)

On the Web

BONAP aforementioned

BNPS aforementioned

http://www.facebook.com/groups/bellevuenativeplantsociety- BNPS on Facebook

Books & Authors

Rick Darke- The Living Landscape

Douglas Tallamy- Professor and Chair of the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Entomology at the University of Delaware, author of The Living Landscape, Nature's Best Hope, naturalist, and curator of "Homegrown National Park".

Enrique Salmon- Iwigara

Daniel Moerman -Native American Ethnobotany

Heather Holm- https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com

Native Plants of the Midwest

Planting in a Post-Wild World

Jon Farrar's Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska