Seen in the Wildflower Garden

Our volunteer-maintained wildflower garden is a bit of a secret in plain sight. Just outside our back door (beside the overflow parking), it contains a wide variety of local flowers. Here's a bit of what I saw when I was out with the camera a couple of Fridays ago:

Blue-eyed Grass

Blue Flax, one of my favourites

A Blue on the Western Canada Violets

Canada Anemone

One of the many varieties of Columbine

Yellow Ladyslipper Orchids

What you find flowering changes with the seasons, so it's always worth a quick stroll to see what's up in the garden. And if you have a green thumb and would like to help our gardeners out, give Marg a call at 403-346-2010 ext. 113.

In the Wildflower Garden

Visitors to the Nature Centre may have noticed a small green space next to the staff parking lot driveway. This is our wildflower garden, and the members of the Red Deer & District Garden Club put a lot of effort into planning and maintaining it.

The garden is home to many native and wild species of flowering plants, and the colours and scents you find there are constantly changing throughout the growing season. We encourage our visitors to follow the short gravel path through the garden to have a closer look at the flowers and the activity they create. As I noticed today, the garden is a very popular place with many important insect pollinators, a few of which you'll see in the photos below.

These are just a sampling of what's currently flowering in the garden. Why not come down to the Centre and check out the garden for yourself?

As always, click on the photos to see larger versions:

 Columbine

 Fleabane and Harebell

Gaillardia

Goldenrod and Police Car Moth

Monarda (Bergamot) and bee

Prickly Pear Cactus (not technically in the wildflower garden -- closer to the building -- but definitely worth a look when they're in flower)

Sunflower

Yarrow