If you've walked in the Iowa woods lately, chances are you've seen some spring beauties in bloom. Over the weekend I saw hundreds of them along the Bill Riley bike trail in Des Moines and in the oak...

One of my favorite spring woodland wildflowers tends to form large colonies and "will readily adapt to garden areas near deciduous trees."

Today's featured plants are among the few wildflowers I could identify before I embarked on the journey that led to the Iowa wildflower Wednesday series. I grew up calling them dogtooth violets. More...

After a somewhat late start, many spring wildflowers are blooming now in central Iowa. If you walk in a wooded area over the next few days, you may see Virginia bluebells, spring beauty, toothwort,...

After a brutal winter and an unusually cold March, I'm more happy than ever to see early spring wildflowers. Two weeks ago, nothing was blooming yet around my corner of Windsor Heights. About ten...

I'm happy to report that last week's light blanket of snow does not appear to have harmed most of the spring wildflowers in central Iowa. Since the snow melted over the weekend, I've seen blooms and...

After dandelions, violets may be the native plants most frequently spotted on Iowa homeowners' lawns. While we usually think of violets as being blue or purple, I've also seen many yellow and white...

Aside from dandelions, violets are probably the wildflowers most likely to turn up in Iowa yards, whether you live in the city, suburb, or countryside. Common blue violet (Viola sororia) is prevalent...

Iowa didn't experience much severe winter weather this year, but the political climate was harsher than at any other time in living memory. After writing up too much bad news these past few months,...