For those interested in making Emporia a more beautiful place to live, work and shop, Emporia Main Street invites you to Adopt a Garden!

Emporia Main Street Garden Adoption Guidelines

Below are assorted guidelines designed to make adopting a Main Street downtown garden an easier and more enjoyable experience. Input regarding these guidelines and the adoption process is highly encouraged. It is the hope of the Emporia Main Street Design Committee that downtown adoption guidelines will evolve with the continued involvement of the Emporia community.

Guideline 1: Individuals, groups, organizations or other entities that choose to adopt a garden are responsible for garden upkeep for one year. Upkeep should include, but is not limited to, weeding, picking up accumulated trash, trimming and planting.

Guideline 2: Purchases made for the purpose of garden upkeep or maintenance are the responsibility of the individual, group organization or other entity that adopted a garden. While Main Street can provide incentives like store coupons, the organization currently cannot purchase supplies for each garden.

Guideline 3: We strongly suggest the inclusion of "Prairie Star" flora and day lilies in expansion and diversification of flower beds. "Prairie Star" products are ideally suited for the Kansas climate and require less maintenance than some other varieties. Currently, Emporia is the only Day Lilly city in the United States, so Emporia Main Street strongly encourages the inclusion of day lilies in planters to emphasize our Day Lilly status.

Guideline 4: Participants in the Adopt a Garden project should take great care not to destroy or remove pre-existing floral elements or garden infrastructure. Shrubs, irrigation equipment and the brick/concrete casings can be damaged if one is not careful. Non floral items should not be added to gardens without the consent of Emporia Main Street.

Guideline 5: Emporia Main Street will publicly promote individuals, groups, organizations or other entities that chose to adopt gardens. Periodically, gardens will be judged by an anonymous panel with prizes given out to top gardeners whose work best exemplifies the usage of Emporia Main Street garden guidelines and the spirit of the garden adoption project: which is to beautify the gardens in such a way as to improve community pride and area traffic for the express purpose of creating a more vibrant community.

Guideline 6: Any individual, group, organization or other entity wishing to adopt a garden must state their intent to adopt said garden and receive adoption authorization from Emporia Main Street. We want to avoid confusion by maintaining a centralized database of all adopted gardens, and without an information clearinghouse (such as Main Street) it would be impossible to track and place all adoptions.

Guideline 7: When in doubt, ask us questions! Emporia Main Street is here to help. If we don’t know the answer to one of your questions, we can generally find someone else that can quickly be of assistance. Give Main Street a call at 340-6430 or e-mail us at main.street@emporia-kansas.gov and let us help you!

Prairie Star Annual Flower List

Prairie Star Perennial Flower List

Prairie Star Plant Availability

Garden Adoption Map

Growing Flowers in Pots

Downtown Garden Suggestions

Emporia Main Street Garden Adoption Guidelines

Garden Caretakers

For more information or to sign up, please feel
free to contact Emporia Main Street at 620-340-6430 or main.street@emporia-kansas.gov