Wildflowers are spectacular this summer

I must admit that I had not planned to write this column, but the topic is too good to pass up.

Over the past few weeks, I have been in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah seeing some spectacular wildflowers. All are beautiful, but I think the ones in our own mountains are almost impossible to beat.

I don't try to keep score, but last year, the flowers in the high mountains came and went very quickly. With a record snowfall and an usually cool June, the flowers are blooming much later this year, so there is still another few weeks before they freeze at the high elevations.

Fortunately, there are many places to see some extraordinary displays. Among my favorites are the Cottonwood canyons, Tony's Grove in Logan canyon, the backside of Timpanogos, the drive over Monte Christo and Guardsman's pass.

Utah has a remarkable diversity of native plants. With elevation ranges starting in the Mojave Desert at Beaver Dam, Washington County, at 2,000 feet, to 13,528 feet at King's Peak in the Uinta Mountains, there are vastly different conditions that create an abundance of plant communities.

I was OK with not writing about these plants until I took a recent trip to Little Cottonwood Canyon. The wildflower displays there are fleeting as the snow melts away and flowers grow and bloom in the short growing season.

What was most interesting this year is the change of which flowers are the showiest at this time of the season. Covering the hillsides right above Alta was the most spectacular display of the bright golden yellow of the Mountain Sunflower that I had ever seen.

With those were the colorful stunning blue Wasatch penstemons, one of several species that bloom right now. This cultivar and many others are well adapted for landscape gardens, if you prepare the soil properly and water them as needed.

Filling in other vast areas are the true native geraniums. The sticky geranium has white flowers, while the Richardson's geranium has lavender blossoms. These make stunning additions to your own garden, if you choose to grow them, but never confuse them with the South African plants often grown as houseplants that are erroneously called geraniums.

Jacob's ladder, another native flower, is blooming in abundance. It grows up to 3 feet in height and is a tough, drought-resistant flower that blooms well in landscapes. There are many nursery cultivars of this plant.