What is it that makes me love wildflowers so? I don’t know – but I do. Perhaps it’s because wildflowers have been evolving for millennia and there is a “rightness” about them that fits their environment.
For many years I contemplated landscaping our home with native wildflowers and plants but I didn’t even know where to begin.
In 1998 my husband and I took a trip into south Texas and came home via Austin. I’d picked up some brochures somewhere that listed Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center as an interesting place to see. It’s a botanical garden dedicated to the native plants of Texas. For plant geeks, it’s awesome! Some of its goals are to help people ”to understand the role of native plants in a healthy ecosystem, to value the natural landscape, and to take action to protect, conserve and restore the natural landscapes of North America”. In several areas of the garden, they made arrangements of exotic plants, and then showed how native plants could be substituted to give a similar look. That impressed me. It was emphasized that when natives are planted in the right locations, they don’t require additional fertilizer or watering as exotic plants often do in normal years. This not only saves the energy of the gardener but also helps the environment.
I came home all excited about “growing native” and I thought and thought about how I could landscape our home. I poured over natural planting books but still nothing seemed possible. I couldn’t bring myself to tear out what I had worked so hard to establish. My opportunity came in 2003 when we decided to build a new home beside our old one. There was nothing on the site to cut down except one spindly shrub and I could handle that! About that time, I learned about Grow Native! which is a joint project of the Missouri Departments of Conservation and Agriculture. Their website, http://www.grownative.org/, has been a continuing source of information and inspiration.
The plants in the front and at the entrance of our new home are all native. In a cleared area just behind the house I chose to plant some things that are not. Other flowers in the bed are native and were chosen because they are attractive to both butterflies and hummingbirds. The plantings among the trees will be shade-loving wildflowers that will look at home there.
A hedge of native shrubs and trees planted along the property line will eventually screen our old house from view. In the front yard, I have tried somewhat to reproduce the look of the woods in back. The trees and shrubs I’ve planted were chosen because they provide food and/or cover for the wild critters found on our land. I spoke earlier about the “rightness” of native plants. They do fit - as do the birds and animals of a certain area that depend on them in so many ways.
I consider our woods to be an extension of my garden. My dream is to bring the wildflowers of the woods to my wild garden for everyone to enjoy.
For many years I contemplated landscaping our home with native wildflowers and plants but I didn’t even know where to begin.
In 1998 my husband and I took a trip into south Texas and came home via Austin. I’d picked up some brochures somewhere that listed Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center as an interesting place to see. It’s a botanical garden dedicated to the native plants of Texas. For plant geeks, it’s awesome! Some of its goals are to help people ”to understand the role of native plants in a healthy ecosystem, to value the natural landscape, and to take action to protect, conserve and restore the natural landscapes of North America”. In several areas of the garden, they made arrangements of exotic plants, and then showed how native plants could be substituted to give a similar look. That impressed me. It was emphasized that when natives are planted in the right locations, they don’t require additional fertilizer or watering as exotic plants often do in normal years. This not only saves the energy of the gardener but also helps the environment.
I came home all excited about “growing native” and I thought and thought about how I could landscape our home. I poured over natural planting books but still nothing seemed possible. I couldn’t bring myself to tear out what I had worked so hard to establish. My opportunity came in 2003 when we decided to build a new home beside our old one. There was nothing on the site to cut down except one spindly shrub and I could handle that! About that time, I learned about Grow Native! which is a joint project of the Missouri Departments of Conservation and Agriculture. Their website, http://www.grownative.org/, has been a continuing source of information and inspiration.
The plants in the front and at the entrance of our new home are all native. In a cleared area just behind the house I chose to plant some things that are not. Other flowers in the bed are native and were chosen because they are attractive to both butterflies and hummingbirds. The plantings among the trees will be shade-loving wildflowers that will look at home there.
A hedge of native shrubs and trees planted along the property line will eventually screen our old house from view. In the front yard, I have tried somewhat to reproduce the look of the woods in back. The trees and shrubs I’ve planted were chosen because they provide food and/or cover for the wild critters found on our land. I spoke earlier about the “rightness” of native plants. They do fit - as do the birds and animals of a certain area that depend on them in so many ways.
I consider our woods to be an extension of my garden. My dream is to bring the wildflowers of the woods to my wild garden for everyone to enjoy.
Aquilegia canadensis
Dicentra eximia
Phlox divaricata
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