A native wildflower garden along the front range of the Rocky Mountains delivers beauty as well as habitat for birds and pollinators throughout the year.  During July and August, shades of pink, fuchsia and lavender blossoms dominate as yucca, shell-leaf beardtongue, coneflower, bee balm, poppy mallow, prairie clover, and showy milkweed come into bloom. Blanketflower, chocolate flower, golden columbine, sulfur-flowered buckwheat, prairie coneflower, and prince’s plume add splashes of yellow. Butterfly milkweed and prairie fire blooms deliver dashes of orange and red, while flax and harebell chime in with blue and purple. During this season, a Woodhouse toad hides in the shadows as  a swallowtail butterfly, sphinx moth and various bees flit from flower to flower. Swallows soar overhead while an oriole sails over the flowers and a grosbeak searches the shrubs for insects to feed its young. A male rufous hummingbird rests on a branch as it passes through, already enroute south from nesting grounds in Canada and Alaska.

Art by Colorado Artist Susan E. Quinlan 

Visit susanquinlan.com for a free guide to Through the Seasons wildflowers and wildlife along with  information about the joys and benefits of native plant gardening.