Rocky Mountain Wildflowers — Rocky Mountains

      This year there are fantastic wildflower displays all over Colorado. Blooming now are Lupine, Indian Paintbrushes, Columbine, Mariposa Lilies, and Aspen Sunflowers---just to mention a few. These wildflowers and others have created more interest and demand for Rocky Mountain Wildflower Field Guide as people want to identify the flowers. The handy pocket-sized guide written by naturalist Linda Nagy with photographs by her award-winning photographer husband Bernie Nagy is selling well throughout Colorado. Last year in August the book received from Colorado Independent Publishers Association three top awards in the book categories of Reference, Nature, and Layout and Interior Design....

This year is proving to be a spectacular year for wildflowers. Along roadways, trails, and in fields and in high country meadows, colorful blooms can be seen everywhere in abundance. If you have a chance, you should visit Crested Butte Colorado during the 2015 Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. The week-long event takes place July 13-19 with additional events continuing through August. Even if you don’t attend scheduled events that are well worth the price, you can travel the back roads on your own to enjoy fantastic wildflower displays.      Aspen Sunflowers and Meadow with Larkspur, Aspen Sunflowers and Mule's Ears...

Let’s hear it for the school children of Colorado! Twice they have influenced the legislature in naming official state symbols. The Rocky Mountain Columbine began its road to becoming the state flower in1891 as it was voted overwhelming the favorite flower of Colorado’s school children. The white and lavender Columbine, Aquilegia caerulea or coerulea, was adopted as the official state flower on April 4, 1899 by an act of the General Assembly.       Discovered in 1820 on Pike's Peak by mountain climber Edwin James, the columbine was also named and described by him. The two spelling confusions are due...

Recently I completed my first Colorado Native Plant Society course through the CSU Extension. For three Saturdays a group of approximately 15 of us explored the flora of Golden Gate State Park in Colorado. We hiked along trails as our instructor, Mariska Hamstra, pointed out plants and gave information as to their families, scientific names, characteristics, and ecological connections. Each day we studied approximately 30 plants; so by the end of the course, we learned close to 100 species. On the last day of the class, the beginning of our time was spent with a test. Our instructor walked along...

  Wildflowers are an important part of landscape photography. Using them as a foreground almost guarantees an interesting photo and the color that they add can be a very important part of the picture. Shooting wildflowers isn't difficult once you know a few pointers. Here are a couple that works well... I'm often asked when is the best time to shoot wildflowers in the Rockies. By mid to late June it is usually possible to find wildflowers at the seven to ten thousand foot levels. However, the real displays of high country wildflowers found at eleven and twelve thousand feet...