I am an avid, but amateur wildflower enthusiast. Now that I am retired, I aid in the identification of the wildflowers of Minnesota in the Facebook Group “Minnesota Wildflowers.” I have been obsessed with wildflowers for a long time since finding Pasqueflower growing on the dry, sandy bluffs above my boyhood home in central Minnesota. Pasqueflower was not the only native plant growing in that remnant bluff prairie. It held many other wildflowers and grasses native to Minnesota. Big Blue Stem, Porcupine Grass, Side-Oats Grama, Prairie Dropseed, Indian Grass, Puccoon, Prairie Rose, and Ground Plum are some grew in that remnant prairie. Ground Plum became a welcome midday snack for me as a young boy as I would leave the house in the morning and oftentimes would not return home until the waning of the day. Sadly, that prairie remnant has long since been destroyed by development and Pasqueflower grows there no more, but I often return to that rarefied place in the fondest memories of my childhood.

If you ever chance to see me outdoors, I will be that old guy kneeling almost prayerfully whilst taking photographs of my favorite wildflowers. It is ineluctably true that life’s ambitions can often lead us astray, but for my humble part, I will forever remain content to dwell within the fragrant shadows cast by the wild Prairie Rose.