I recently wrote a brief article on purple prairie clover for the newest edition of the Kansas Native Plant Society newsletter and thought it would be relevant to cross-promote on our blog. Purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea) is the Kansas Native Plant Society 2023 KansasWildflower of the Year (WOY). Found throughout Kansas, this erect perennial […]
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In one of the horticulture magazines I received this week, I was drawn to an article about some shiny new plants for 2023. I don’t know what it is about new plants, but I like to see the unique, unusual and up and coming each year. It is one of the great things about gardening – […]
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“New native plants” is a misnomer we use a lot throughout our blogs and newsletters. In fact, they have been here for eons! But we get pretty excited around here when we can add a lesser-known native to our inventory for the first time. “New” just means newly available to our customers. Thanks to growing […]
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Winter is a great time for gardeners to curl up on the sofa and pore over seed and plant catalogs. Every year I try to order a few new plants to spice up our inventory and widen our species diversity. Just looking at all those beautiful blooms to choose from gets me excited for spring! […]
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As 2022 comes to a close, we reflect back on all the wonderful things we accomplished with your help in the past twelve months – we completed our island renovation project, replaced our greenhouse roof with a more wind-hardy solution, watched the plants persevere through a very wet spring and an extremely dry summer and […]
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When the weather is cold and the days are short, I just want to curl up on the couch and rest. And according to prairie plants, that’s exactly what I should be doing! As much as it pains us to see our favorite plants dry up and freeze in the fall, cold weather is an […]
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It looks like winter is settling in as the forecast seems to be turning colder in the coming days. It is a perfect time to reflect on the past year in the garden. It has been a tough year to grow just about everything, due to the monsoon rains in spring followed by the desert […]
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This past summer I had the opportunity to spend several weeks visiting friends and familiar places in Germany. Having lived there for three years in my twenties, this visit provided a much-needed cure for my Wanderlust. Turns out that when you wait so long to return to a favorite place, you see it with fresh […]
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I am grateful for the beauty of nature which reminds me to slow down and take a deep breath. How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I […]
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Leaves are everywhere this time of year, and for good reason! Leaves have an important role in the ecosystem. Trees and the organisms living in and below them have evolved for millions of years together, working in sync to create vegetation and break it down in an efficient cycle. But most Americans don’t realize this, […]
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