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The Seed A Publication of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum A Focus on Wildflowers Celebrate Nebraska Wildflower Week the first week in June! Inspired by a similar national event, the aim of Nebraska Wildflower Week is to increase awareness and appreciation of wildflowers and native plants in the wild and in the landscape through an array of events and activities across Nebraska. Nebraska Wildflower Week will be observed in early June. National Wildflower Week, which is coordinated by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Texas, is observed in early May. The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum (NSA) is serving as coordinator and Inside: clearing house for information for Nebraska Wildflower Week. “There will be tours of wildflower Nebraska’s Prairie Wildflowers displays at NSA sites, wildflower walks at state parks and natural areas, native The Prairie Lithospermums plant sales, wildflower art shows and Gardening with Prairie Plants all sorts of other activities,” says Bob Henrickson. For more information, go to Bob Henrickson, Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Historical Uses of Wildflowers plantnebraska.org/wildflower. Why would anyone want to garden and landscape using prairie plants? Prai- Wildflower Week Proclamation ries, after all, cover vast areas, reaching “Part of the prairie mystique is from horizon to horizon, not across small Favorite Wildflowers the pure Americana embodied lot sizes in towns and cities. Won’t a natural prairie around my home look like in things that most people a weed patch and defy the old rule that Planting a Prairie have never seen before, and says a good neighbor should have a “per- will see nowhere else. Flowers fect” lawn. What exactly should a prairie landscape look like? How do I maintain Wildflowers for All Seasons with the old homespun names it? of rattlesnake master, blazing The idea of using prairie plants in the landscape is still new to many people Wildflower Viewing Roadways star, blacksamson, prairie and the number one concern is how a smoke, compass plant, butterfly prairie garden would fit into a well- Prairie Grasses for the Garden milkweed, wild indigo, windflower, manicured lawn neighborhood. Happily, I’ve learned I can coexist using a natural kittentails, spiderwort, Culver’s landscape look by simply providing a root, queen-of-the-prairie, mowed edge or a fence next to the prairie blue-eyed-grass, shooting star, so the casual observer knows that this is a planned landscape. Natives can also be catchfly, and many others, all used in a more formal setting by using Homestead National Monument near Beatrice and woven into the fabric of tall plants with a uniform habit and planting prairie coneflower, Ratibida columnifera. them in a formal, orderly design. grasses in a pioneer quilt of form Continued on page 6 and color.” John Madson Restless about Natives Jim Locklear, Lauritzen Gardens “anti-humanist” ideology in the Amer- what landscape architects call a sense ican native plant gardening movement of place. Native plants appeal to people It’s hard to imagine controversy sur- and wonders about parallels to the who are tired of landscapes that look like rounding something as wonderful as gar- nationalism and racism of a similar gar- every other place in the country. Using dening, but there is often heated debate dening movement in pre-World War II Nebraska natives allows you to bring a over the issue of native versus non-native Germany—a link between native plants regional character to your surroundings. plants. As noted horticulturist Michael and fascism? Thankfully, Nebraska has a wealth Dirr has written, “Friendships are solidi- While these matters are being debat- of beautiful, hardy native plants, partic- fied and shattered over native plants.” ed in the pages of horticultural publica- ularly wildflowers and grasses, which The battle lines are usually drawn tions, the average Nebraskan just wants make wonderful garden and landscape by folks who, for a number of different to know the best plants for their landscape. plants. Using them in the landscapes of reasons, feel native plants are the best The great advantage of our natives is our homes, businesses and communities choice for use in our cultivated land- that they are well-adapted to local growing is a way to capture the essence of the scapes. Most enthusiasts are content to conditions and require less water, fertilizer, prairies, woodlands and other natural simply inspire wider use of natives, but pesticides, etc. to grow and maintain. plant communities that give Nebraska its some take a more activist approach. plantnebraska.org/ A less practical but more stirring great beauty and unique character. So The rhetoric can get downright reason for the use of natives is that they celebrate living in Nebraska, but don’t goofy. One New York writer sees an wildflower reflect a sense of the natural landscape— get goofy about it. Nebraska’s Prairie Wildflowers Bill Whitney, Prairie Plains Resource Institute Here are just a few ideas: There are plenty of challenging and Over the past three decades many rewarding possibilities for people who Nebraskans have awakened to the beauty have an interest in restoring prairies and utility of native wildflowers. Many and wetlands since there is much factors are responsible. The Nebraska more to be learned about establishing, Game and Parks Commission and propagating and producing native plant Fontenelle Forest Nature Center in seed. This is especially true of some Bellevue have published excellent color of the less common species that do not photo guides of wildflowers. Conserva- produce much seed. In addition, there tion organizations, government agencies is potential to develop commercial seed and individual landowners have devel- and seedling production activities to oped a growing interest in preserving Plains coreopsis (above); make prairie and wildflower plantings prairie in Red Willow county; prairie remnants and restoring native more readily accessible to more people gayfeather and prairie coneflower prairies, rangelands and wetlands. Outdoor over a larger geographic area. Increased (top right). education activities that never existed prior entrepreneurial activity in the future to 1980 have begun to educate people of would be beneficial for the consumer. It all ages about Nebraska’s natural history. would increase the overall market for In addition, native plant landscaping, seed wildflower related things and, over time, we do further cultivates our awareness and nursery businesses have begun offering has the potential to create many new jobs. of place. I would encourage people to and promoting more wildflowers. Because Much has been done in native learn and teach others about wildflowers of all these changes, people can now find wildflower horticulture in Nebraska. by visiting the places where they occur. information as well as plant materials for Recent efforts by the University of This can be done any time during the many of their own projects—something Nebraska and the Nebraska Statewide growing season on the many prairie that was either difficult or impossible in the Arboretum attest to this fact. Their preserves and public wildlife areas across past. pioneering use and promotion of grasses the state. The species in bloom vary with Despite all the progress, however, and wildflowers in urban settings has the season, from pasqueflower on the there is always more that can be done. added a distinctively regional aesthetic northeast Nebraska prairies in May, to to the landscape, bringing attention to prairie clovers and purple coneflowers in the various colors, textures and seasonal the eastern tallgrass prairies, to the many changes of this region’s flora. At a more species of goldenrods and sunflowers personal level, the home gardener can occurring statewide. always find new ways to develop and apply Prairie Plains Resource Institute is the art of native wildflower landscaping in one of many groups with special places to new ways and situations. With the current visit for appreciating wildflowers. Below wealth of native plant information and are four areas in east-central Nebraska to plant materials, the sky is the limit. In the visit, several of them offering Wildflower future, I’d like to see more commercial Week tours (see events on back cover). landscapes incorporate wildflowers into Call 402/694-5535 or email ppri@ their plantings—adding a little more hamilton.net for more information. diversity and beauty into oftentimes bland Ratzlaff Prairie, southwest of settings. Henderson, Nebraska, is a great place to My favorite recommendation see prairie violets or rough rattlesnake regarding wildflowers concerns root, two of many wildflower species enjoyment and education. We can’t do there. too much in these pursuits, and anything The Frank L. and Lillian Pokorny Memorial Prairie north of Schuyler contains 20 acres each of virgin tallgrass prairie and prairie restoration. Here one The Prairie Lithospermums can see prairie sunflowers, rosinweed, lots of compass plant and leadplant, to Harlan Hamernik, Bluebird Nursery, Inc. of a showy soft, deep orange in early name but a few. spring, on stems 12-16” tall. This is an Some of the Great Plains’ more The Olson Nature Preserve in excellent choice for the rock garden or outstanding perennial wildflowers are northern Boone County is a community for naturalizing in well-drained sandy or in the genus Lithospermum. Litho is educational resource of exceptional rocky sites. Greek for stone and spermum is Greek scenic and natural beauty. Here one The third important puccoon in the for seed. You may more easily recognize can experience the wildflowers of the middle states is Lithospermum incisum, its common name, puccoon, which is an Nebraska sandhills such as four-point the fringed puccoon, which stands out American Indian name for dye plants. evening primrose, flax, hairy puccoon in the sandy prairies with its soft yellow, Various yellow, red and purple stains and bladderpod, as well as some special frilly flowers displayed in head-like were made by boiling the different wetland wildflowers and marsh plants clusters over interesting narrow leafed plant parts in water along with beads, such as swamp milkweed, Joe-pye weed, foliage.

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