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Grow Iowa Natives

Growing thriving communities that heal the earth through native plants in Iowa. Growing a thriving community that heals the earth through native plants in Iowa.

27/08/2025

✨🐛 One of 8 little monarchs in my yard!
They’re chowing down on swamp, butterfly & common milkweed 🌿🦋

Can’t wait to see them transform 💛🧡🖤

29/07/2024

𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙞𝙣 | 𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙖 𝙝𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙖

Blue Vervain is native to North America, including the lower 48 US states and most of Canada. It's a low-maintenance, perennial wildflower that can be found in wet areas like marshes, wet prairies, stream banks, and river-bottom prairies. Blue vervain can also grow in disturbed sites, pastures, and ditches. It blooms in mid to late summer and has bluish-purple flowers.

Blue vervain is bee-friendly and attracts many other pollinators, including birds, butterflies, flies, moths, and wasps. It's also a food source for birds and pollinators when other summer flowers have passed.

Photo taken at Franklin Community Garden, Windsor Heights, Iowa.

Johnson County Conservation
Dallas County Conservation Board
Warren County Conservation Board

26/07/2024

𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝘾𝙞𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙞𝙡 | 𝙋𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖 𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙪𝙩𝙖

Tall cinquefoil is a perennial herb in the rose family that can grow up to 3 feet tall and is native to Iowa. It has hairy stems, sharply-toothed leaves, and clusters of white or yellow flowers that bloom from May to September. Tall cinquefoil is drought tolerant and can grow in full sun, dry to moist, sandy or gravelly soil. It's often found in prairies, dry meadows, and sandy hills.

24/07/2024

𝙎𝙬𝙖𝙢𝙥 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙠𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙙 | 𝘼𝙨𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙖

Swamp milkweed has several differences from other milkweed species, including:

Swamp milkweed leaves are narrower and more delicate than other milkweed leaves. They are oval-shaped, broad, and opposite, with prominent veins and soft, fuzzy hairs on the underside.

Swamp milkweed has fragrant, showy clusters of dome-shaped flowers that are pale pink to white with five petals. The flowers bloom from June to August and attract many pollinators, including butterflies, bees, and hummingbird moths.

Swamp milkweed can grow up to 6 feet tall and doesn't spread as much as common milkweed. It grows best in wet conditions, but can also tolerate heavy clay soils and thrive in average garden soil. Swamp milkweed is also deer-resistant.

15/07/2024

𝙃𝙚𝙢𝙥 𝘿𝙤𝙜𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙚 | 𝘼𝙥𝙤𝙘𝙮𝙣𝙪𝙢 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙢 𝙇.

This may get confused with milkweed as it has a similar shape and opposite leaves but monarchs are unable to utilize h**p dogbane as a food source for larvae. They also produce a milky sap like milkweed.

It is poisonous to humans, dogs, cats, and horses.

H**p Dogbane blooms from late June through July. It can grow in many conditions including gravel or sandy fields, in meadows, and along creek beds, ditches, and fence lines in cultivated pastures, and of course prairies. In the fall, it produces long red, smooth, and slender seed pods.

Photo taken at Easter Lake on July 9.

13/07/2024

𝙄𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙙 | 𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙖 𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙖

It's also known as prairie ironweed or common ironweed. Ironweed is considered deer-resistant as its leaves are tough and fibrous and have a bitter taste that makes them unpalatable.

Ironweed prefers full sun and moist, fertile, medium-textured soils like clay, loam, or sand. It can grow in prairies, marshes, roadsides, and old fields, and is especially common in overgrazed pastures.

It blooms from July to early September, and each plant has many flower heads. A new plant can take 1–2 years to produce flowers.

Photo taken at Easter Lake on July 9.

Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District
Polk County Conservation

12/07/2024

𝙒𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙠𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙙 | 𝘼𝙨𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙖𝙨 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙖

Whorled Milkweed is one of 18 milkweeds native to Iowa. It blooms from July to September. This is later than many other milkweeds and provides a vital source of food for monarchs and their caterpillars late in the season. The flowers are white to pale green and the plant is 1-3 ft tall with narrow linear leaves. It is also rabbit and deer-resistant.

Picture taken at Botna Bend Park, Pottawattamie County

08/07/2024

𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩 | 𝙎𝙞𝙡𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙢

The compass plant blooms in Iowa in July and August, producing yellow flower heads that are about 2.5 inches across. This native perennial prairie plant is part of the sunflower family and can grow up to 8 feet tall. It's known for its large, deeply lobed leaves that orient themselves north to south to avoid the midday sun, which gives the plant its name.

29/06/2024

You can obtain a "Red Card" or the Incident Qualifications Card certificate to become qualified for wildland fire operations. With a red card, you could be called to fight major wildland fires throughout the United States. See more about fire training at https://tinyurl.com/5fnfy7u3

Photo taken in Johnson County.

27/06/2024

Prescribed fire is called a prescribed fire because it's a planned fire that's intentionally set to meet management objectives. It's also known as a controlled burn or prescribed burn.

"Iowa's native tallgrass prairies and plant communities developed under fiery conditions and are part of a fire-dependent landscape. By reintroducing fire, we recreate a process that maintains Iowa's fertile soils in grasses and wildflowers. (e.g. brome, invasive species, trees, and brush, etc.)" Read more from the Iowa DNR article at https://tinyurl.com/yuu2p9h3

Photo taken in Johnson County.

25/06/2024

𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙚 | 𝙄𝙤𝙬𝙖 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙖

How do prescribed fires help Iowa prairies?
What is a "red card"?

Video taken March 11, 2024, at Easter Lake, Polk County.

Polk County Conservation

24/06/2024

𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠-𝙀𝙮𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙪𝙨𝙖𝙣 | 𝙍𝙪𝙙𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙖 𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙖

Black-eyed Susans is a wildflower native to Iowa and most of North America. In Iowa typically blooms from mid-June to mid-July, but can also bloom from mid-to late summer and early autumn, and can continue to flower until fall frost. They are a low-maintenance perennial. Black-Eyed Susans can be found in full-sun areas including dry to moist prairies, roadsides, open woods, and somewhat disturbed places

Photos were taken at Botna Bend Park, Pottawattamie County.

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