Identification

One of the most important parts of starting a wildflower garden is identification of the species you are working with. Not only just to know what you have, but also so you can provide the correct habitat requirements. Sometimes, species within the same genus are very similar to each other and very close examination is necessary to differentiate them, and even other times - like with Aster or Solidago species, for example, it is more prudent to leave it to a professional or to get the plant or seed from a trustworthy nursery who has already identified it. Of course, errors happen, but generally most nurseries guarantee their plants to be true to name.

To the casual grower of wildflowers, it is probably not worthwhile to learn all the Latin names of each species, but for us, we have gotten to the point that the only way to keep species straight is to use exclusively Latin names - because otherwise we would have multiple plants with the same common name! However, on each species page, the common names are listed.

To help facilitate your quest to identify any wildflowers you might have or run across, we refer you to our individual species pages, which can be accessed from the plants page. And we also welcome you to use other references such as these: