A prairie with many a blossom

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

My friend, Jannine, and  I recently enjoyed the Midwest Native Plant Conference at Dayton, Ohio. I learned a lot from presenters and other attendees. The conference concluded with field trips, and Jannine and I chose the 112-acre Huffman Prairie which is located on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. I had hoped for blossoms and was not disappointed.

Huffman Prairie - Dayton,Ohio

It was a nice surprise to see that many of the plants in our backyard also do well in the prairie, including purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and blazing stars (Liatris spp.).

Blossoms also included the bright-red royal catchfly (Silene regia). Not surprisingly, these plants looked quite different when mixed together in large patches – like giant bouquets.

HuffmanPrairie2 -Dayton,Ohio

It’s wonderful to imagine the original native prairies of long ago, and sad to realize that only a small remnant of them still exists. I’m delighted to have visited one in full bloom.

9 thoughts on “A prairie with many a blossom”

  1. Thanks, Betty!
    Beautiful!!
    I am currently living in my retirement home in Molus, KY.
    Loss of formerly abundant wildlife here is most discouraging and probably not temporary.
    DHB

    1. Donald, Wishing you at least a bit of wildlife – bees? butterflies? or other pollinators? Birds? Squirrels? Rabbits?

    2. I can tell you with a little work we have turned out front area into a wonderful area for bee both honey and bumble. We had butterflies all over and a favorite we had spicebush caterpillars. We planted last year had a massive turn around this year.

      1. Thanks for sharing, Tony. Bees, butterflies, and spicebush caterpillars, all in the first year after planting sounds like a real success story. Here’s hoping it will encourage others to do something similar.

  2. Thanks for so many photos which I missed the first time. They remind me of the meadow flowers I saw in the Wyoming mountains.

  3. Having lived in the Midwest I once said I was surprised to see that prairie plants do well in our gardens. A slightly different perspective.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *