Welcome to the Colorado Native Plant Society!

We are dedicated to the preservation of native plants in Colorado, and are so glad you found us! Browse our site to see what’s new, discover a wealth of information about our plants and habitats, events and chapters in your area, methods for native plant gardening, and ways to volunteer ‘in the field’.

Become a Member

Discover the benefits of membership in the Colorado Native Plant Society.

Field trip at Todd Gulch Fen
CoNPS booth at Boulder's Farmers Market

Join a Local Chapter

Connect with fellow nature lovers in your immediate area, and find out how you can help preserve our native plants.

CONPS Chapters for Local Connection

Find an Event

See our Calendar of Events to find a gathering or field trip near you!

Events Per Year

native plant summit speakers
a photo of a subalpine delphinium plant with a whitelined sphinx Moth

Learn About our Plants & Habitats

Find out more about the diversity of our plant life zones and the native (and non-native) plants that thrive in each one.

Colorado Native Species to Discover

Aquilegia – The CONPS Magazine

CoNPS’ Aquilegia Magazine was first published in January 1977 after the first CoNPS board meeting. The magazine has been published quarterly from that date to the present.

In 2013 the magazine’s editor Jan Turner moved from the previous printed black and white format to a full-color on-line edition through our CoNPS website. Limited copies were still printed with a color cover only for members who preferred a printed copy.

Members have FREE access to digital subscriptions after logging in.

Print copies are available to everyone for $20.

CONPS Blog

Hits and Misses in a Native Garden

Hits and Misses in a Native Garden

No matter how much planning and research goes into the creation of a native garden, there are bound to be hits and misses! Even if we use plants that we know are native to our region, the conditions in our garden - from soil composition and drainage to the effects of...

Embracing the Shade

Embracing the Shade

I’m the proud owner of a 28-year old native plant garden in central Boulder. I started thegarden myself, back in the 90s, by planting many little shrubs and tiny native pines I gotfrom a local nursery. Not so surprisingly, over the intervening decades, my little...

2025 John Marr Grant Recipients

The CoNPS John Marr Grant recipients for 2025 are:   Ashlee Kerber, Master's student at Denver Botanic Garden/University of Colorado Denver, "Genetic and volatile chemical signatures in the Polemonium viscosum complex: a combined approach to species delimitation"...