"Morning Greetings" by Christy Westman
Image ID: 6223
Plant(s): Spiderwort, penstemon, fountain, wildlife pond.
Photo Story: My morning view of my native garden.
Equipment: Cell phone
Title: Morning GreetingsPhotographer: Christy Westman
Location: Kirkkand IL home
Chapter: Fox Valley Area
"Frosted Echinacea purpurea" by Neal Bringe
Image ID: 6277
Plant(s): Purple Coneflower
Photo Story: A winter storm on September 8th, 2020 created an artistic image of a Purple Coneflower which was tucked in a garden in front of our home in Elizabeth, CO. I posted it on Facebook at that time and someone encouraged me to include it in this contest. I saw the contest announcement and so here is the submission.
Equipment: Cannon Powershot SX70 HS
Title: Frosted Echinacea purpureaPhotographer: Neal Bringe
Location: Elizabeth, CO
Chapter: Front Range
"Orange Splendor" by Arlene Kjar
Image ID: 6281
Plant(s): The bright orange flower is Michigan Lily, Lilium michiganense. The shadow on the garage is Black Spruce, Picea mariana.
Photo Story: The Michigan Lily has rapidly been spreading in our raingarden for we started with just one plant several years ago. This time as I photographed it, I wanted to get some background in it, so was pleased to see the shadow of the tree and how it harmonized so well with the gold-color siding of the garage.
Equipment: I used my EasyShare Z1015 IS Kodak camera.
Title: Orange SplendorPhotographer: Arlene Kjar
Location: It was taken in my raingarden which is back of our house.
Chapter: Northfield Prairie Partners
"Powered by the Sun" by Jasmine Dorn
Image ID: 6432
Plant(s): Coreopsis lanceolata, rose mallow, milkweed, sunflowers
Photo Story: Nighttime photo of Tiberina, my pollinator and medicine garden.
Equipment: Phone (Pixel 4xl), standard tripod
Title: Powered by the SunPhotographer: Jasmine Dorn
Location: Lowell, AR
Chapter: Ozark
"Boulder Public Library's New Native Plant Garden" by Aaron Michael
Image ID: 6493
Plant(s): 1) Golden Currant - ribes aureum
2) Common Snowberry - symphoricarpos albus
3) Fireweed - chamaenerion angustifolium
4) Beebalm - monarda fistulosa
5) Rocky Mountain Penstemon - penstemon strictus
6) Black-Eyed Susan - rudbeckia hirta
7) Bluebell Bellflower - campanula rotundifolia
8) Purple Coneflower - echinacea purpurea
9) Stiff Goldenrod - solidago ridiga
10) Wax Currant - ribes cereum
11) Big Bluestem - andropogon gerardii
12) Blue Flax - linum lewisii
13) Rocky Mountain Columbine - aquilegia saximontana
14) Common Yarrow - achillea millefolium
15) Fringed Sage - artemisia frigida
16) Showy Fleabane - erigeron speciosus
17) Dwarf Blue Rabbitbrush - ericameria nauseosa var. nauseosa
18) Creeping Oregon Grape - mahonia repens
19) Blue Grama Grass - bouteloua gracilis
20) Blanket Flower - gaillardia aristata
21) Swamp Milkweed - asclepias incarnata
22) Switchgrass - panicum virgatum
23) Anise Hyssop - agastache foeniculum
24) Kinnikinnick - arctostaphylos uva-ursi
Photo Story: We at Earth Love Gardens (company members of Wild Ones) designed and installed this native plant garden at the Boulder Public Library. A full renovation was needed (all the photos can be viewed here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1043783193031916&id=342802379796671) to transform an old neglected Japanese garden at the library to an educational, inspirational space for native plants that serve for pollinators, birds, and more. Much care was taken to assure all the plant varieties were, in fact, native and about 25 varieties of plants native to the area are featured. The garden is further certified as an Audubon Rockies Habitat Hero Garden. Right away the garden was visited by native bees, butterflies, and even a hummingbird! Native plant pollinator gardens work!
Equipment: Mi 9T 13 megapixel camera
Title: Boulder Public Library's New Native Plant GardenPhotographer: Aaron Michael
Location: At the Boulder Public Library's New Native Plant Garden
Chapter: Partner At Large
"Home Prairie" by Janet Giesen
Image ID: 6519
Plant(s): Asclepias syriaca - Common Milkweed
Baptisia alba macrophylla - White Wild Baptesia
Eryngium yuccifolium - Rattlesnake Master
Ratibida pinnata - Yellow Coneflower
Schizachyrium scoparium - Little Bluestem
Silphium laciniatum - Compass Plant
Silphium terebinthinaceum - Prairie Dock
Sporobolus heterolepis - Prairie Dropseed
Verbena stricta - Hoary Vervain
Vernonia gigantea - Tall Ironweed
Veronicastrum virginicum - Culver's Root
Photo Story: This is a fairly large area of native forbs and grasses. The species are planted in drifts and limited in number to emphasize color and texture.
Equipment: Grass smothered in wet newspaper and mulch after which plants were planted.
Title: Home PrairiePhotographer: Janet Giesen
Location: Prairie plants in front yard of photographer in Sycamore, Illinois
Chapter: Rock River Valley
"Prairie garden out my door" by Mariette Nowak
Image ID: 6527
Plant(s): Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa); Fleabane (Erigeron sp.); Great St. John's-Wort ((HYpericum pyramidatum)
Photo Story: Butterflyweed abounds in my dry prairie soils. It has spread beautifully on its own to many different areas on my property, including along the edge of our gravel driveway. The other species arrived on their own.
Equipment: NIKON D3400
Title: Prairie garden out my doorPhotographer: Mariette Nowak
Location: My yard
Chapter: Kettle Moraine
"Out-of-the-BOX" by Jennifer Ryan Kubicki
Image ID: 6686
Plant(s): Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa) and leaves of Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba and of course non-native turf grass.
Photo Story: I've been a member of the Wild Ones here in Central Ohio (Columbus Chapter) since about 2002. I have been a seed collector and gardner since my childhood growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. It was a privilege to glean seed from a privately owned tallgrass prairie in Fredericktown, Ohio owned and operated by Guy Denny, founder of Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves in 2017. He generously holds Spring and Peak Bloom tours of his Prairie and it was on an Late Summer Open Member Seed Pick that that I obtained so many beautiful native seeds for free! It took about 5-years to get these seeds to leaf and flower and eventually fill-in as you see them depicted in this 2021 photo.
I have heard complaints that my coneflowers, grown from this wild prairie, are not like the short/compact plants you purchase as plugs or in containers selected by commercial growers. Yes - they really are quite tall and lanky and consequently we get this cascading effect going on over a small hillside in the front yard. I hadn’t noticed until I took this photo that my garden is so different from the ones on both sides of the street we live on - it is so "Outside the Box."
The Coneflowers pop-up and lean down as the season subsides and rely on the monarda to keep them standing during their peak bloom time. So in order to prop up the Coneflowers, to maintain a tidy look,I sewed Brown-eyed Susan’s (Rudbeckia triloba) at the base. Rudbeckia triloba open’s later and provides a longer color-interest to this garden bed. Even still, the front yard is a tidy controlled display of commonly known prairie plants and it's the back yard that I can really go WILD.
Equipment: Android Phone - Note 9
Title: Out-of-the-BOXPhotographer: Jennifer Ryan Kubicki
Location: 1492 Norma Road, Columbus, Ohio 43229
Chapter: Columbus
"Primrose Hedge" by Jennifer Ryan Kubicki
Image ID: 6689
Plant(s): From the back: Evening Primrose, Purple Coneflower, Garlic Chives (not native), Black-eyed Susan.
Photo Story: I believe we all have neighbors or relatives who complain about something that seems out of the ordinary - pushing the boundaries of beauty as we re-capitulate the need for native plants. My back yard is perceived as a "Weed Patch" for some, until the end of July that is, when the fragrance of Clethra alnifolia and Common Milkweed is in the evening air. Family members come over and watch the hummingbirds dart in and out of our mimosas. By August the Evening Primrose and Cup Plants have reached the height of 9 and 10 feet and the neighbors can no longer see past my native flowering hedge and the pollinators and wildlife explode with color and activity from my kitchen window.
Equipment: Cannon T5
Title: Primrose HedgePhotographer: Jennifer Ryan Kubicki
Location: Behind my house
Chapter: Columbus
"Summer" by Renee Benage
Image ID: 6709
Plant(s): Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Royal Catchfly (Silene regia), Phlox paniculata
Photo Story: This photo was taken at the Shaw Nature Reserve in the Whitmire Wildflower Garden on a hot July day in 2021.
Equipment: Canon Power Shot SX70 HS
Title: SummerPhotographer: Renee Benage
Location: Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri
Chapter: St. Louis
"Minnesota Garden at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory" by Joan Brandwein
Image ID: 6714
Plant(s): Black-eyed Susans, Prairie Dropseed, Little Bluestem, Common Milkweed
Photo Story: I live near Como Park Zoo and Conservatory in St. Paul, MN and walk in the park nearly everyday. Over the past several years, I've enjoyed watching the development of the recently added Minnesota Garden featuring native plants. I captured this late August scene of a portion of the garden and the Conservatory at sunrise.
Equipment: Sony a7r111, 70-180mm Tamron lens
Title: Minnesota Garden at Como Park Zoo and ConservatoryPhotographer: Joan Brandwein
Location: Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, Saint Paul, MN
Chapter: Big River Big Woods
"Rain garden August" by Cathy Streett
Image ID: 6812
Plant(s): Brown eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) and cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)
Photo Story: Brown eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) and cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) anchor the show this time of year in the rain garden. Both move around the garden much to my delight. This area is a bird haven and the seed eaters are all day visitors. The pollinators are also well fed here in the rain garden. The garden soaks up all the rain discharge from our sump as well as the gutter from the house. It is vital to filtering the water and keeping water from our home on the property.
Equipment: Samsung Galaxy 5S cell phone
Title: Rain garden AugustPhotographer: Cathy Streett
Location: My backyard rain garden
Chapter: West Cook
"Pollinator Garden at Aspired Living" by Cathy Streett
Image ID: 6813
Plant(s): Purple coneflower, Smooth Phlox, Ironweed, Rudbeckia, and two types of Milkweed (common and butterfly weed)
Photo Story: Purple coneflower, Smooth Phlox, Ironweed, Rudbeckia, and two types of Milkweed are the backbone of this 3 year old planting started by the members of Darien Garden Club. The club plants and maintains the garden during the season. We have added more native pollinator plants each year. We set the spot off with a lovely sign to inform those that visit the purpose of the garden. There are butterflies and other pollinators frequenting the spot which is good for the rest of the space that is devoted to vegetables and herbs. This season we also added annual vines to the spot to also attract more pollinators especially hummingbirds which are a favorite of the seniors who reside at the facility.
Equipment: Samsung Galaxy 5S cell phone
Title: Pollinator Garden at Aspired LivingPhotographer: Cathy Streett
Location: Aspired Living Westmont, IL
Chapter: West Cook
"Trifecta" by John Bales
Image ID: 6835
Plant(s): Ironweed (Vernonia baldwinii),
Monarch butterfly
Photo Story: We planted wildflowers under our solar array.
This Monarch butterfly decided to pose on the Ironweed and I took advantage of the opportunity.
Equipment: iPhone
Title: TrifectaPhotographer: John Bales
Location: St. Francois County, Mo
Chapter: Southeast Missouri
"Sustainably Beautiful" by John Bales
Image ID: 6837
Plant(s): Ironweed (Vernonia baldwinii),
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus),
Post oak
Photo Story: We planted native wildflowers under our solar array. This Monarch butterfly posed for me on the Ironweed and I took the opportunity to snap a few photos.
Equipment: iPhone
Title: Sustainably BeautifulPhotographer: John Bales
Location: St. Francois County, MO
Chapter: Southeast Missouri
"Prairie Smoke" by Catherine McKenzie
Image ID: 6848
Plant(s): Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum)
Photo Story: Three years ago we removed the grass from our small front yard and filled the area with native plants. Prairie Smoke with its early blooms and troll doll hairdo has become one of my favorite plants.
Equipment: Nikon D850 with a 16-35 lens
Title: Prairie SmokePhotographer: Catherine McKenzie
Location: My front yard in Appleton, WI
Chapter: Fox Valley Area
"Pocket Prairie Yard" by Catherine McKenzie
Image ID: 6878
Plant(s): Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Photo Story: Three years ago we removed the grass from our small front yard and planted native plants fairly close together to form what we call our Pocket Prairie. It has been a hit with friends and neighbors and has had the added benefit of influencing others to plant more native plants. It is alive with bees, butterflies, and birds all summer.
Equipment: Nikon D850 with 16-35 mm lens
Title: Pocket Prairie YardPhotographer: Catherine McKenzie
Location: My yard in Appleton, WI
Chapter: Fox Valley Area
"Joan Brandwein-Central Park Roseville, MN-2021" by Joan Brandwein
Image ID: 6927
Plant(s): Joe Bye Weed, Black-eyed Susans, Milkweed, Sunflowers
Photo Story: The city of Roseville has been adding native plantings near a small pond area in Central Park. While taking a walk with my dog (and camera) one sunny August day, I spotted a rainbow in the aeration fountain sparkling behind the native plantings and captured this photo.
Equipment: Sony a7riii, Tamron 70-180 lens
Title: Joan Brandwein-Central Park Roseville, MN-2021Photographer: Joan Brandwein
Location: Central Park, Roseville, MN
Chapter: Big River Big Woods
"Drenched Pod" by Keren Pomp Fortier
Image ID: 6972
Plant(s): Common Milkweed
Photo Story: Soaking wet beauty
Equipment: iPhone
Title: Drenched PodPhotographer: Keren Pomp Fortier
Location: Norwell MA
Chapter: South Shore MA
"Fall Prairie from the Front Yard" by Elisa Zappacosta
Image ID: 6992
Plant(s): Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)
Photo Story: Fall Prairie taken from the front yard in the morning
Equipment: iPhone SE
Title: Fall Prairie from the Front YardPhotographer: Elisa Zappacosta
Location: Westfield, IA
Chapter: Loess Hills
"Working Native Raingarden" by Ruth Hilfiker
Image ID: 7009
Plant(s): 30 species of native flowers, sedges, and prairie grasses.
Photo Story: I designed my new home on 1.75 acres as an eco-landscape with almost all native trees, shrubs, grasses, sedges, and flowers, including a .75 acre native prairie. Two large raingardens take most of the rain from my roofs with solar panels and turn my front yard into a colorful, biodiverse landscape that in just 2 years has an abundance of Monarchs, blue birds, and hundreds of native bees.
Equipment: iphone 7
Title: Working Native RaingardenPhotographer: Ruth Hilfiker
Location: My raingarden, New Richmond, WI
Chapter: St. Croix Oak Savanna
"Happy Distraction" by Jessica Schrishuhn
Image ID: 7029
Plant(s): Pictured in bottom photo: Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), Dotted Mint (Monarda punctata), Missouri Ironweed (Vernonia missurica), ZigZag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis), Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina), and Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Photo Story: My husband and I closed on our first house in April 2020 as the world was shutting down. Most days it felt scary and isolating, but we kept retreating to the backyard for peace and fresh air. I later read Doug Tallamy's book, Nature's Best Hope, and was inspired to start channeling the fear and unknown into a new native garden. We spent countless hours planning, designing, tilling, weeding, planting, mulching, watering, waiting, and watching. Together, we found the happiest distraction in this transformation.
Equipment: Google Pixel
Title: Happy DistractionPhotographer: Jessica Schrishuhn
Location: My backyard in Chicago
Chapter: West Cook
"Monarch Caterpillar in Music City Nashville" by Donnie Bryan
Image ID: 7052
Plant(s): Native Monarch Caterpillar on common milkweed
Photo Story: I was enjoying a native plant pocket in downtown Nashville, when I spied this perfect native monarch caterpillar.
Equipment: iPhone 7
Title: Monarch Caterpillar in Music City NashvillePhotographer: Donnie Bryan
Location: In a Downtown Nashville, Tennessee Neighborhood
Chapter: Middle Tennessee
"Late Summer at Fallingwater" by Donnie Bryan
Image ID: 7055
Plant(s): Fallingwater is the architectural home and wonder of the iconic architect, Frank Lloyd Wright built on a waterfall in Mill Run, PA and is surrounded by native trees, plants, flora, moss, and running water.
Photo Story: I took this photo on my visit to Fallingwater – a dream come true.
Equipment: iphone 7
Title: Late Summer at FallingwaterPhotographer: Donnie Bryan
Location: This photo was taken at Fallingwater in Mill Run, PA
Chapter: Middle Tennessee