“See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.”
— Song of Songs 2: 11-13
I have been intrigued by wildflowers since I first read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was in elementary. She described the prairie grasses and flowers so well that I could almost picture them in my mind.
After moving out to the country I was thrilled to learn of some small remnants of native prairie grasses and flowers on the property.
The purple cone flower was one of the first flowers I identified.
It has a large flower head that measures from 1-4 inches with a orange colored bristly cone in the center and narrow purple leaves that droop down. It has a hairy, reddish colored stem and long lance-shaped leaves.
The purple cone flower can grow up to 40 inches tall and is drought resistance.
I’ve found it to be one of the easiest plants to get started. Just scattering a seed head will result in new plants! It reseeds itself well and will also transplant well.
I have several plants in flower beds near the house and they always bloom for me, stay nice as cut flowers, and look great well into the fall.
The wildflowers all around us are at their biggest and brightest now! Yellow and purple cone flowers, sunflowers, beautiful blue chicory, and one of our favorites, Queen Anne’s Lace.
Queen Anne’s Lace
By: Mary Leslie Newton
Queen Anne, Queen Anne has washed her lace
(She chose a summer’s day)
And hung it on a grassy place
To whiten, if it may.
Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has left it there,
And slept the dewy night;
Then waked to find the sunshine fair,
And all the meadows white.
Queen Anne, Queen Anne, is dead and gone
(She died a summer’s day),
But left her lace to whiten on
Each weed-entangled way!
Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees 