Georgia Native Plant Society

Georgia Native Plant Society (GNPS) is a member supported, 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to championing the stewardship and conservation of Georgia’s native plants and their habitats.

Through plant rescues, habitat restoration, community-supported propagation, habitat certification, and more, we actively drive conservation efforts across Georgia.

With nine chapters and growing, we are dedicated to education and outreach that fosters healthy habitats and ecosystems statewide. Click here to read our bylaws.

1994 – The Native Plant Conference in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

Jim Harrington and Jackie Fitts, with a list of interested Master Gardeners and an “if interested” notice on the bulletin board, began the effort to establish the Georgia Native Plant Society. Barbara Allen helped with the planning, while Jackie called each person on the lists and spoke on the radio with Kathy Henderson and Walter Reeves.

The first meeting was held September 14, 1994 with forty people in attendance. The first officers were:

December 1994 – Membership had grown to 250 members and GNPS began publishing the newsletter and NativeScape.

April 10th, 1995 – The First Annual Native Plant Symposium was held, and speakers Sally and Andy Wasowski, authors of Gardening with Native Plants of the South, waived their normal speaker’s fee, as did Kathy Henderson and George Sanko, in order to promote the first symposium.