Queen of the Midwest Native Plants

Just sorting through my 6,000 photos from the Midwest Native Plant Conference and hope you'll enjoy seeing some of the highlights. It was a madcap time with tons of good friends, fabulous speakers and loads of hard-to-find native plants for sale.

Queen-of-the-Prairie, Filipendula rubra

Queen-of-the-prairie was the plant of the year for MWNP 2011. A perfect selection, too. I bought yet another for my yard!

This year seems to be a banner year for this 3-4 foot tall blooming mascot, and the ones I saw at Beaver Creek Wetlands were in peak form.

Brian Jorg, from the Cincinnati Zoo, gave the Friday evening program. Brian travels extensively to see the rarest of the botanically rare. We were treated to some of his best photos and a whirlwind tour of the midwest's orchids.

And yes, he had photos of Cypripedium reginae, Showy Lady's-Slipper and some other orchids that are currently blooming at Cedar Bog. Several of us visited bog/fen today, but that story is for a later post!

Steve McKee and Jim Davidson

(Shown here with a sound amplifying devise to help with those high pitch insect calls.)

Steve and Jim both gave programs and led field trips for the conference. These two are the best mentors one could ask for! Steve gave a wonderful keynote presentation on "The Botanical Detectives." His sense of humor and botanical encouragement are perfect for empowering beginners (like me!)

Jim Davidson is my go-to-guy for all things butterfly. His program focused on butterflies and the native plants they use as host plants.

Jim McCormac and Guy Denny

Two more of Ohio's best botanical minds! Jim, who is also an expert birder, gave an inspired program on Hummingbirds and pollination. Guy, who could be the King of Ohio Prairies, spoke on tall grass prairies and how he planted his. We can probably cover a bit more of that in an upcoming post as well.

Thanks to the many tireless folks who put this program together, it was an outstanding event once again! I will look forward to planting my many new plants this week, and know we will be enjoying them for many years to come.