Photos: Left: Sally Urdang; Right: Jes Holtz
Deep Roots is hosting Plan It Native 2026 on February 10th and 11th at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center and the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center. Early Bird tickets are priced at $255 (full price $315).
We welcome Camille Dungy, Author of Soil: The Black Mother’s Garden, as our opening keynote address. She will discuss some of the ways literature, gardening, and community engagement help her harness the twinned powers of hope and resilience. Dr. Abigail Lewis, Executive Director of Citizens for Conservation, will close the conference with a message about the power of people, pollinators, and prairies.
Throughout the conference, you will have the opportunity to choose from 21 sessions to learn about topics including native plants for water management, native grasses, edible native plants, below ground microbial communities, and the urban plant palette. You’ll find sessions about faunal connections with bees and butterflies, and conservation for all insects and wildlife. Enjoy learning about large prairie establishment, management and restoration, seed collection, and prescribed burns. Deep dive into green infrastructure policy, design, and maintenance.
Visit the Plan It Native Exhibit Hall to mingle with our community of native landscape partners. The exhibit hall is expanding this year to give you more space for conversation and more sponsors to enjoy. We will be hosting two interactive areas on Wednesday to give you the opportunity to engage with art and mindfulness. Stop by the Deep Roots conference booth to purchase speaker books and get them signed by the authors as well as perusing some Deep Roots merchandise.
Do you enjoy taking photos of your gardens? Join the Plan It Native photo contest! We will be selecting a “headliner” image to be featured on the cover of our printed program as well as other photos to be used throughout the conference materials. We are seeking photos that include native bees and native plants for our headliner image and will select all types of native flora and fauna for our other images. The photographer selected for the “headliner” image will receive a free Plan It Native registration! Submit your images to planitnativephotos@deeprootskc.org by October 15th, 2025. By submitting an image, you give permission to Deep Roots KC to use your image in print or digitally. For images selected, we will give the photographers photo credit. Deep Roots KC reserves the right to resize and/or crop images as needed.
We’d like to thank all our 2026 conference sponsors! Their support is invaluable to the conference and impactful to our native plant community.
Bur Oak Sponsors
Black Cherry Sponsors
Prairie Willow Sponsors
Sugar Maple Sponsors
Might your organization be interested in sponsoring Plan It Native 2026? Click here for more information.
