This has been an amazing year for wildflowers. In April, the low deserts of California and Arizona briefly became a world wonder. While the high deserts of Utah and Nevada didn’t attract hordes of admirers, they were equally magnificent in June. Due to plentiful snowfall this past winter, the meadows and tundra of the Rockies had their best wildflower displays of the past decade. And now the Front Range is bedecked in flowers.
As I drove south on Colorado 83 toward Franktown recently, it was all I could do to keep the car on the road, so distracting were the fields of rabbitbrush and sundry daisies. It was mostly golds and yellows, but the landscape was interrupted by displays of purple asters.
It wasn’t so long ago that fields of wildflowers similarly surrounded my home, but housing developments have sprouted in their place. Gone also are flowers in the open space next door. Mowing practices didn’t consider the life cycle of flowers – they were deadheaded before they had a chance to set seed.
So it was a pleasant surprise to discover that once you get out into the countryside, some of our natural beauty remains relatively undisturbed. There grow my old friends, various yellow daisies: common sunflower Helianthus annuus, prairie sunflower Helianthus petiolaris, golden aster Heterotheca villosa, gumweed Grindelia squarossa, broom senecio Senecio spartioides and cowpen daisy Verbesina enciloides. The purple daisies are tansy aster Machaeranthera biglovii.
White prickly poppies Argemone polyanthemus that have been blooming for several months now still dot the roadside. White evening star Mentzelia nuda also has bloomed continuously since they first appeared in July.
In places, shrub-sized bush morning glory Ipomoea leptophylla sports showy magenta flowers that close during the heat of the day. At slower speeds, you might be able to make out lavender, blue or pink spikes of silvery lupine Lupinus argentea. The brighter, reddish- purple spikes are dotted gayfeather Liatris punctata. I’m certain close inspection would reveal lots of smaller treasures tucked in among the more conspicuous fare.
All these wildflowers are easy to grow in gardens, requiring only unobstructed sunlight. Once my garden played host to all the aforementioned, but crowded conditions and maturing trees have shaded out all but tansy aster, cowpen daisy, prickly poppy, spotted gayfeather and common sunflower.
To have these wildflowers in your own garden, just follow nature’s model and allow them to fill spaces between xeric shrubs such as rabbitbrush and Apache plume. A few of these are available as plants from local nurseries, but most are easily grown from seed scattered over bare earth and then scratched in with a rake. Water until the seeds germinate and again whenever it hasn’t rained for several weeks. If the seed is allowed to ripen and fall, these plants will come back year after year.
Beauty Beyond Belief in Fort Collins specializes in seed of wildflowers. Packets of seed are available at local garden centers. Western Native Seed, Coaldale (719-942-3945 or westernnativeseed.com), is another good source for seeds.
Marcia Tatroe is a garden writer and lecturer. E-mail her at rltaurora@aol.com.
