“I love all flowers, but to me, wildflowers are the ultimate expression of floral perfection. They are nature’s flawless plan for pollination and they never fail to impress me with their flat-out beauty.”
-from Taming Wildflowers by Miriam Goldberger (St. Lynn’s Press, 2014)

There’s nothing quite like roaming through a wildflower field. Sun shining, wind softly blowing and beautiful native plants, of all shapes, sizes and colors, as far as the eye can see.

National Wildflowers Week is celebrated the first week of May and there’s lots to celebrate! Not only are wildflowers beautiful, but they help conserve water, reduce lawn mowing and provide homes for birds, butterflies and other wildlife, plus much more. Miriam Goldberger, author of Taming Wildflowers: Bringing the Beauty and Splendor of Nature’s Blooms into Your Own Backyard, is a crazy wildflower lady, in all of the best ways! We wanted to share an excerpt from her book that shows her passion for these hardy native wonders.

The great modern naturalist, Loren Eiseley, recognized the interlinked complexity of life on earth and placed flowers right at the center of things, along with us humans. I agree with him completely: we belong together.

Once upon a time, every single flower in the world was a wildflower. Wildflowers are as much the heartbeat of our planet as the oceans. All living creatures interact with wildflowers whether they know it or not. For 130 million years, wildflowers have blessed the earth with their amazing skill sets and stunning beauty – absolutely free of charge! But what do we really know about them beyond those Sunday drives into the country where we marvel at their colors and variety and maybe stop to pick a bouquet to take home?

Wildflowers are, without exaggeration, the unsung heroes of the planet; they are a powerful force that truly sustains a complex web of interdependent creatures. Without wildflowers our planet would not only be a sadder place, but life as we know it would not exist. You won’t ever catch wildflowers bragging about their accomplishments. They go about their business quietly, unnoticed and largely unobserved. But what work they do! I think of wildflowers as feminine beings, participating in the most nurturing, life-sustaining aspects of creation.

[shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="4643021"]