Rhus glabra By Karen Vanderwall and Kristine Johnson Smooth sumac is a multi-stemmed woody plant or shrub native to the Front Range of Colorado as well as southwestern Colorado. A special feature of this shrub is that the leaves turn bright red in the fall, often forming wide brilliant swaths of scarlet across the landscape. […] Continue reading "Plant Spotlight: Smooth Sumac"
By Karen Vanderwall By the end of August, native plant gardeners sigh and can enjoy the fruits of their labor – beautiful blooms, numerous species of bees, hummingbirds, perhaps fluttering monarchs and feeling the joy, the pride of a successful gardening season. But wait – the season isn’t over yet! Native fall-blooming plants and shrubs […] Continue reading "Top Autumn Native Plants"
Aquilegia coerulea (Rocky Mountain Columbine, Blue Columbine) – Perennial Forb – Native Plant Species Sheet Download the PDF by clicking on the image above. View all of our Native Plant Species Sheets provided by Front Range Wild Ones.(Thanks Peggy for helping create all of these great sheets!) Continue reading "Aquilegia coerulea (Rocky Mountain Columbine, Blue Columbine) – Perennial Forb – Native Plant Species Sheet"
By Kristine Johnson A few years ago, I applied for and received a Terra Foundation Grant from the Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference. This meant $1000 toward native plants which supported birds, while also requiring turf removal and tracking biodiversity in some way in my yard. We removed the last of the lawn in […] Continue reading "Habitat Gardening is for the Birds!"
By Lani Rush In author Kate Bradbury’s own words, she specializes in practical wildlife gardening and her latest book One Garden Against the World is a memoir told over the course of a year in her ‘modest’ and ‘relatable’ garden in the United Kingdom. In it, she focuses on the power of small fixes like […] Continue reading "Book Review: One Garden Against the World"
By Richard Phillips Datura in Full Bloom (All Photos by Vicki Saragoussi Phillips, unless noted otherwise) One of my wife’s (Vicki) favorite plants is poisonous. I was supposed to write an article about the Maximilian Sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani). In bed last night, I spent wakeful interludes making a mental list of what I needed to […] Continue reading "Datura: An Unnatural Native Plant"
By Kristine Johnson Imagine a native plant garden. What do you see? Most of us picture colorful and attractive flowers, mostly of a certain shape and a certain height, but growing native plants is so much more than that. This article will encourage you to think a little outside the box to consider different types […] Continue reading "Overlooked Native Plants"
Review by Karen Vanderwall Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake Fungi are their own kingdom, the highest category in the classification system for all living things on Earth. There are only 6 kingdoms: animals, plants, fungi, and three that are mostly single-celled organisms. Taking […] Continue reading "Book Review: Entangled Life"
by Karen Vanderwall People living along the Front Range are becoming more aware that conserving water and establishing native habitats is vital to managing our regional drought and supporting local pollinators. The City of Fort Collins is innovating and leading, locally and nationally, by weaving together the built environment and natural ecosystems. Driven by community funding […] Continue reading "The Nature of Fort Collins"
By Deborah Lebow Aal* I bet you’ve made some design mistakes with your native plants. I certainly have. I’ve put a red flower next to another clashing red flower, a tall flower in front of a short, and much worse. So silly. So, I asked a few very active Wild Ones Front Range Chapter folks […] Continue reading "Favorite Native Plant Combinations"