In 1998 I started this website. In 2020 I moved to South Dakota. The site has about 1200 indexed pages of native gardening information, butterfly gardening, papermaking from plants, a plant identification guide, and backyard bird information. In 2024, I updated the site and corrected pages that weren’t loading. The site is available at https://kansasnativeplants.com/.
My Apple Orchard
Beginning in 2020 I started planting apple trees of various varieties that can survive in zone 4. I have images of the apples on iNaturalist and you can access them with the following list. When you click on the cultivar name it will take you to the iNaturalist observation showing you images of the cultivar.
| Observed | Cultivar | Scientific Name |
|---|---|---|
| 8/24/2022 | Freedom | Malus domestica |
| 7/22/2024 | Yellow Transparent | Malus domestica |
TablePress table
[table id=2 /]Kentucky Coffee Trees at Mitchell Indian Village
Discovery
While leading a native plant walk at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village in Mitchell South Dakota, Jeff discovered some Kentucky Coffee trees growing in a draw at the village. He knew they did not occur naturally this far north or west. The closest natural occurrence of them is in the very southeastern part of South Dakota.
Indian Involvement
Indians were known to use the seeds of the Kentucky Coffee trees. Is it possible they brought the trees to the Mitchell area over one thousand years ago? Learn more about the cultural uses by Native Americans.
Jeff Hansen
Jeff is a native plant consultant and maintains his Kansas Native Plants website. The site contains information on landscaping with native plants.
His Kansas Plant Identification Guide contains information on hundreds of native and introduced plants found in Kansas,
Handmade Plant Fiber Paper contains information on making paper from plant fiber found in Kansas. Jeff offers a paper making class once a year in Topeka.