It is your GPOD editor, Joseph, here today, sharing photos of more wildflower adventures, this time in southern Indiana. It is amazing to me what beautiful flowers I saw and how many of them I have never seen in gardens! There is so much more we can do to truly appreciate and grow our beautiful native plants.

Giant waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum, Zones 3–7) has big beautiful clusters of soft blue flowers.

Many of the hillsides I saw were just covered with clouds of these giant waterleaf blooms. This plant is a biennial, so after the flowers fade the plants will die, setting lots of seed to germinate and carry on the show in future years.

Prairie trillium (Trillium recurvatum, Zones 4–9) was a new species for me to see in the wild. Though the flowers are not as showy as those of the classic great white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum, Zones 3–9), they are beautiful and interesting and definitely reward a closer look.

Speaking of rewarding a closer look, wild ginger (Asarum canadense, Zones 4–7) has attractive foliage, but it is easy to overlook the flowers. Because they are pollinated by beetles that live on the ground, the blooms open not up in the air but down right at the soil surface, often even covered by leaf litter. But in the spring it is worth poking around a little to see and enjoy these unusual flowers.

Violet wood sorrel (Oxalis violacea, Zones 5–9) is a plant that was new to me, and I just fell in love with it. Some sorrels are weeds, but this is a wonderful little native. The little pink flowers were fine—but the foliage! I just loved the carpet it made of green leaves, each marked with a dark burgundy pattern. I would LOVE to have this carpeting my shade garden at home.

I’ve pulled a LOT of weedy, invasive, European chickweed (Stellaria media, annual) out of my gardens, but this native star chickweed (Stellaria pubera, Zones 4–11) actually surprised me by being quite beautiful!

I never get tired of seeing woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata, Zones 3–8). Each plant is a little different, and each one is beautiful.

 

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