Plants Archives - Heartland Safari

Snow white, 6-petaled flowers with yellow centers smile up from the green jumble of species that make the yard of Owl Acres. Star-of-Bethlehem, Bird’s Milk or any of several other names, the inch-wide blooms were among the first to appear in mid-May.

Legends shining in the grass: Star-of-Bethlehem or Bird’s milk

Updated June 17, 2026

Along the edges of our prairie garden, we noticed some tiny, pure white star-shaped flowers. They were only a few inches high, and stood out against the green of the emerging grass. The flowers have a variety of names. Some describe the flower’s setting—summer snowflake, star flower, grass lily, or snow drop. others describe what […]

Plants

Just out the window is Karen’s Study Garden. It sports a chaotic mess of species (might call them weeds). The charm of this little plot is that each spring, a different plant finds its ideal conditions and becomes profuse. This year, the star of this unscripted show is Field Pennycress. Next year it will be something else and we don’t have any idea what it will be.

Old Weed or New Crop: Field Pennycress

Updated May 24, 2026

In mid-April, I noticed an unfamiliar plant growing in the garden outside my study window. Its name, I discovered, was field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense). It is a member of the mustard family and is generally considered a weed, but, who knew, it is getting a new reputation in some places. It may become a crop […]

Plants

Karen’s Ostrich Ferns growing along the north side of the house on Owl Acres. Because of its location, this image can only be captured from mid spring to mid fall when the morning sun is far enough into the northern sky to shine directly onto these shade tolerant plants.

Landscaping Success: Ostrich Ferns

Updated May 17, 2026

About 20 years ago my friend Lisa gave me some starter ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris, also known as fiddlehead fern or shuttlecock fern). I planted them on the north side of the house. They have survived the dogs and the rabbits, and are growing in lush patches filling in between the air conditioner and the […]

Plants

A green, columnar plant sends triangular branches up from a central stem. Short spines line the edge of each lobe. Triangle cactus or Dragon Bones or any of numerous other names, it makes a great house plant.

Living Sculpture: Dragon Bones

Updated October 23, 2025

About fifteen years ago, I went to a fundraiser and bought, for $10, a little cactus. It was an odd little thing, about six inches tall with a triangular stem and a weird head at the top. It looked like a deformed little tree with spines on it. I decided I didn’t like it much […]

Twenty or more fived-petaled blossoms burst from green foliage in this photo from the fencerow. The blooms of Bouncing Bet are small, a little over half an inch across. Long white petals and short stamens splay from atop tube-shaped flowers.

What’s in a Name?: Bouncing Bet AKA Soapwort

Updated October 23, 2025

Often a well-chosen turn of phrase, or a name, can immediately conjure an image. These are the jewels that writers look for. And they’re the names that last through the centuries because of their aptness. And yet, as language changes, the name may be retained without the surrounding context to provide that image. Knowing where […]

Plants

Brown Eyed Susans are in profusion in the prairie garden. Karen is surrounded by the riotous horde of yellow inflorescences with dark brown centers. Each flower-unit is actually a mass of dozens of separate flowers. Ringing the edge are ray flowers, each bearing exactly one of the long yellow petals. At a distance, it resembles a single, daisy-like flower about an inch and a half across.

Yellow is for Fall: Brown-Eyed Susan

Updated October 5, 2025

On a sunny fall day, our prairie garden is calling all bees, flies, butterflies, wasps, beetles, and anybody else who wants some nectar and pollen for dinner. A bunch of brown-eyed susans (Rudbeckia triloba) vie for their share of pollinators by waving their flowers above the fray. They have come into their own now that […]

Plants

Late summer extravagance in the prairie garden. Stiff goldenrod stands tall, its dense cluster of tiny yellow flowers promises (and delivers) feast for all.

Late Summer Extravagance: Goldenrod

Updated September 11, 2025

As summer slides into fall, the array of flowers in our prairie garden and along the ditch shifts to yellows. One notable species is the stiff goldenrod (Oligoneuron rigidum). This late bloomer is native to North America and holds a versatile and important place in our landscape. First of all, because it blooms in late […]

Not strawcolor, but green. Not flat, but triangular. Not grass, but Sedge. Strawcolor Flatsedge displays a tangle of long slender leaves and bristly flower/seed stalks in the margin of the yard next to the sidewalk.

Sedges Have Edges: Strawcolored Flatsedge

Updated August 31, 2025

We’ve had a very wet summer. More rain than we’ve seen in years has fallen periodically an inch or two at a time–including those weeks when we’ve been away on vacation. The result is that the yard has remained green and lush all summer, and places normally dry are a bit soggy. The peppers have […]

Plants

You might think this an ordinary weed, climbing over the sidewalk, but it’s not. It’s knotweed.

Prostrate Knotweed

Updated July 20, 2025

Last fall we had some cement work done on the sidewalk leading to the deck. The ground had settled significantly in the 20 years since the house was built, and the cement sidewalk settled with it. This project was to correct that. In the process of completing the work, the ground next to the sidewalk […]

Plants

Plate-size umbels of tiny white flowers stand atop canes of Elderberry growing next to an Iowa cornfield. More flowerheads have yet to erupt.

Community Living: Elderberry

Updated July 11, 2025

On a bright, cool morning in early July, the landscape is a vibrant, nearly uniform green. We’ve had lots of rain this year, and everything is lush and growing. Against this backdrop of vibrant green, plate-sized clusters of tiny white flowers buzz with happy pollinators. The flowers are arranged in flat-topped umbrella-shaped clusters ten to […]