underrated wildflowers

Wild geranium is one of those wonderful native, shade tolerant, flowers that make me wonder why I don’t see it everywhere, like hosta. It’s hardy. It outcompetes the weeds. The lilac flowers couldn’t be more charming. Even the leaves are interesting. A quick look at the Minnesota Wildflowers website (that I have bookmarked, naturally) tells me that wild geranium is native to entire eastern United States from Canada down to Florida and west to the Rockies. So this is your call to action: plant more wild geranium if you live east of the Mississippi! You can thank me later.

wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)