Windflower Natives

09/12/2026

How every wood lily I grow for you begins…

09/12/2026

It has been four years now since I first encountered Gentiana puberulenta (downy gentian). It instantly became for me a symbol of the natural wonders still present in this landscape.

Though this land has been almost totally transformed in the last 150 years, each September these impossibly blue gentians still speak their wild memory into this cultivated time. For thousands of years they have made their annual appearance on these prairie hillsides. I don’t know how many more years they will persist in the face of the incredible reduction of their habitat.

As long as my legs will carry me, I will continue to visit them. And I will continue growing them—for you, and also for the soothing of my own soul.

09/11/2026

I’m over here preparing orders for pick up and finding myself struck by the beauty of sky-blue aster leaves. There is something ascendant about them. Can you see it nestled in among the other plants?

09/09/2026

The violets on the greenhouse are busy making seed this time of year. Usually they produce seed using a unique process known as cleistogamy which skips the showy flower, but at least one little violet decided to put on a show!

09/08/2026

Shipping has begun for fall orders! Some plants are especially eager to get in the ground! 😂

09/01/2026

08/31/2026

The final weeding of the pasque flower patch always feels so good! Special thanks to my sidekick (and daughter), Brynn, for doing the work! These two-year-old beauties are available on the website now for shipping in late October (and blooming this coming spring!) www.windflowernatives.com

08/27/2026

An unexpected visitor was checking out the native plants today…

08/26/2026

“Look, I know it hasn’t rained in weeks, and I’m pretty much planted in beach sand and gravel, so I’ll just grow a teeny little flower.”

Dry prairie species are tough little buggers! (Gaillardia aristata, Blanket flower pictured)