Kabetogama's Lady Slipper Festival

Help us celebrate our famous wildflower in Minnesota’s only National Park.  Voyageurs National Park is
located on the Minnesota/Canadian Border.  Kabetogama Lake is a large resort community and attracts
vacationers from all corners of the nation.  Our festival is held on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday to take
advantage of two different weekly vacation shoppers.  It's a colorful and exciting event offering great
food, music and entertainment, scenic nature walks and hiking trails, boat tours and cruises, naturalist
guided activities and workshops, and an exceptional group of artists and craft designers.  We are a small
and unique festival providing exhibitors a profitable show.  We hope that you join us for our annual
Lady Slipper Festival.  e-mail

 The Lady Slipper event planners are currently looking for any volunteers to help during the event, or if you know of anyone
 who would like to have a food booth in the festival, provide children’s activities or would like to provide entertainment, please
 call Mel at 218-875-2621 or 800-524-9085 or drop us an e-mail. 

FESTIVAL DATES ~  July 9, 10 and 11, 2010 ~ RAIN OR SHINE
July 9 & 10 ~ 10 am - 5 pm   July 11 ~ 10 am - 3 pm
Kabetogama Community Hall - 1 mile north of US Highway 53 on CR 122

●   Outdoor Juried Arts & Crafts Show     ● Food & Music Daily

THE 2009 LADY SLIPPER FESTIVAL WAS A BIG SUCCESS WITH LOTS OF POSITIVE COMMENTS
EXPRESSED INCLUDING A FEW POSITIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR.  THANKS AGAIN TO ALL
OF YOU THAT HELPED IN ANY WAY - WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!

MORE 2009 FESTIVAL PHOTOS

The Lady Slipper event planners are always looking for any volunteers to help during the event, or if you know of anyone
 who would like to have a food booth in the festival, provide children’s activities or would like to provide entertainment, please
 call Mel at 218-875-2621 or 800-524-9085 or drop us an e-mail. 
 

All made possible in part by local business support, the
Kabetogama Community Club & grant from Iron Range Resources

 SHOWY LADY'S SLIPPER  (Cypripedium reginae) - Minnesota’s state flower. Native perennial, 1-2', in fens,
 swamps,  drainages. Flowers, 1-3 on a stalk, have a large white and pink pouch with narrow, white petals. Blooms in June to
 mid- July. The scientific name means “queen’s slipper.”

 The usually pink, but occasionally red or white flower is about 1" - 2" long, is cleft in the middle, and has the
 unmistakable slipper, or moccasin shape to it. The cleft in the middle is actually an entrance for insects, which acts as
 a one way door.  Inside the flower small hairs "direct" the insect (usually bees) where to go, some never do make it out.
 If they do manage to follow the hairs properly they are sent through a very narrow passage, which forces the bee or
 whatever  bug it may bee to be coated in pollen. All that and the insect hardly gets any nectar to show for it's hard work.
 Once the flower is fertilized and the seeds dispersed, they need to find a mycorrhizal fungus, in order to germinate and
 grow. It may take two to three years before the plant emerges to flower. Without the mycorrhizal fungus the flower is
 unable to absorb any nutrition, since the roots and tubers are without root hairs to perform this function. Once the plant
 does flower it may bloom every summer for a century or more. The plant has two large (up to 8"), broad, parallel veined,
 basal leaves and is the only lady's slipper to not have stem leaves. The stem itself can reach heights of up to 18".
 

 MORE FACTS ABOUT THE LADY SLIPPER