Why grow wildflowers? They add a natural look to our landscapes and are generally low maintenance. Meadow gardens, which are open, naturalized areas planted in wildflowers, offer an alternative to higher maintenance turf. Wildflowers often attract birds and other wildlife. Some species make good cut or dried flowers. Some people grow wildflowers simply for nostalgic reasons. Historically wild flowers have played a major role in the lives of our Native peoples and settlers by supplying them with medicine and food. Many wildflowers make excellent cut flowers to be enjoyed indoors as well. Wildflowers are fun and easy to grow. They are adapted to our soil, tolerate our sun and heat, and require little water. Whatever the reason, wildflowers add interest and natural beauty to almost any landscape.

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Description

General: Sunflower Family (Asteraceae). Common yarrow is a perennial herb that produces one to several stems (2-10 dm tall) from a fibrous underground horizontal rootstock (rhizome). It is known to be both native and introduced. Leaves are evenly distributed along the stem, with the leaves near the middle and bottom of the stem being the largest. The leaves have varying degrees of hairiness (pubescence). Leaf blades are lanceolate in outline, but bipinnately dissected. Overall leaf dimensions range from 0.5-3 cm wide by 3-15 cm long. The flower heads (inflorescence) have a flattened dome shape corymbiform (2.5-4 mm thick by 4-5 mm high) with approximately 10-20 ray flowers. The flowers are whitish to yellowish-white. The plant commonly persists from May through June. Habitat: The plant is frequently found in the mildly disturbed soil of grasslands and open forests.

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Lilacs

Description

General: Olive Family (Oleaceae). Lilac is an introduced, perennial, deciduous shrub that grows between twelve to sixteen feet tall. The leaves are simple, ovate to broadly ovate, and five to twelve centimeters long. The flowers are mostly white, lilac, or purple, pleasantly fragrant in long terminal panicles (Copperrider 1995). The fruiting capsules are one to 1.5 centimeters long, with flat winged seeds (Bruggen 1976).

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Description

Rudbeckia hirta L., black-eyed Susan, is a biennial forb about 1 m tall with yellow ray flowers and dark brown spherical centers. After germination, the seedling grows into a rosette with oblong leaves. Sometimes flower stalks will appear in the first summer, but typically black-eyed Susan blooms from June to September of the second year. After flowering and seed maturation, the plants die. The seed is very small (1,746,000 per pound) and black, about 2 mm long and 0.5 mm in diameter.

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Coneflower Description

Pale purple coneflower is a native perennial forb growing to a height of 3 feet with coarse bristly hairs on the stout stems and leaves. The leaves are rough-surfaced, up to 10 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide, and tapering at either end, with several parallel veins running along their lengths. The basal leaves are on long stalks, while the stem leaves are few, and usually lack long stalks. There is a single showy flower head at the top of each stem, with many drooping, pale purple petal-like ray flowers, each up to 3 ½ inches long, surrounding a broad, purplish brown, cone-shaped central disk. Pale purple coneflower flowers in late spring to midsummer.

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Sunflowers

 General: Sunflower Family (Asteraceae). The sunflower is an erect, coarse, tap-rooted annual with rough-hairy stems 6-30 dm (2-10 ft) tall. The leaves are mostly alternate, egg-shaped to triangular, and entire or toothed. The flower heads are 7. 5-15 cm (3-6 in) wide and at the ends of branches. Ray flowers are yellow and disk flowers are reddish-brown.

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