Beyond your wildest dreams

BY NICOLE ZEMA

When looking for Virginia’s native wildflowers, expect the unexpected.

“Wildflower” is not a formal botanical category, said John Hayden, who has chaired the Virginia Native Plant Society for almost 20 years and has taught botany at the University of Richmond since 1980.

“It’s more of a common-language designation,” Hayden said. “These are mostly herbaceous plants but sometimes include small shrubs that have showy flowers and occur spontaneously in the wild.”

Since 1989, a Wildflower of the Year is nominated by a VNPS member, and the board votes on candidates. Selections may surprise the public.

“There are lots of grasses, sedges and trees that have flowers, but may not be considered wildflowers,” Hayden said. “We don’t think of grasses as having beautiful flowers, but they do indeed have flowers. Beauty is within the eye of the beholder, and one can learn to appreciate the subtleties that occur in plant form.”

The hollow Joe-Pye weed is 2023’s VNPS Wildflower of the Year. When in flower, Joe-Pye weed can be the star of the garden, said Helen Hamilton, past president of the VNPS, John Clayton Chapter.

“But a little rough for a formal garden,” she continued. “These tall, majestic plants are real butterfly magnets. They range from 3- to 10-feet tall with dense heads of fluffy pinkish flowers that are usually covered with butterflies, bees, beetles and wasps, all feeding and pollinating.”

Of the 3,500 wildflower species listed in the Flora of Virginia, including those not typically considered classic wildflowers, about 2,500 are native to the area. Others have come from elsewhere and naturalized.

“Some non-native plants are here because people brought them here, and we maintain the conditions in which