Our Passion for Prairies

WE HAVE HAD GREAT TEACHERS TO AID IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF PRAIRIE RESTORATIONS. THROUGH THE YEARS FOLLOWING THEIR ADVICE HAS LED TO SOME SUCCESSES AND ALSO FAILURES, BUT FROM THESE WE CONTINUALLY IMPROVE OUR DEDICATION TO RESTORING NATURAL HABITATS.

Our Belief

  • Our love of being able to grow things from seed is our greatest passion. The status quo: believe natives can grow anywhere. We now believe that by using our superior soil restoration system that native wildflowers, native shrubs, native trees can once again flourish on Iowa Soils. We exist to provide the highest quality plants, shrubs, trees. To accomplish this goal we need to re-build the eco-system that existed in our soils pre-plow era.

  • We have to stop replacing native plants with cultivars. Our insects don’t recognize these plants as host or nectar sources. The last remaining places to rebuild our diverse ecosystems and improve our environment will be in our own backyards. This initial investment reaps immense benefits for your family, children and wildlife – the sheer amount of wildlife attracted to native plants will amaze you.

  • We promote planting diverse gardens that include wildflowers, native shrubs and native trees. The greater the diversity the more insects you will attract. The more insects the more birds will come to eat them – 96% of birds feed their babies insects. Invest in our eco-system and plant a native prairie garden today.

A NATIVE PRAIRIE EPIPHANY

Blooming Prairie Nursery is a family-owned nursery specializing in growing and installing native Iowa prairie flowers. Our wildflowers are raised locally in Iowa creating stronger plants that thrive in their natural environment. The image above is of our own on-site prairie. What better way to showcase our skills than surround ourselves in the beauty of native prairie flowers? We started working on our prairie in 2011 and with tender care, mowing and burning, it is now a thriving attraction for birds and animals alike.

AFTER THE PRAIRIE BURN

This year after the burn I applied our new technology to parts of the prairie next to the road approximately 2.5 acres. The results were nothing short of amazing, the plants responded with extended bloom times. Also, the number of different butterflies, insects, and bird species increased.

Along with our prairie, we planted native shrubs, and trees around the acreage increasing our diversity. These small improvements in our landscaping are also amazing. The shrubs provide beautiful spring blooms, and later put out berries for the birds to feed their young. Then finish the season with beautiful fall colors. In winter provide some cover, also some hold the berries for the early migrating birds in the spring. These shrubs also attract a lot of insects, which the birds feed to their babies.

ADDING A POND TO THE PRAIRIE LANDSCAPE

The process of keeping all these plants, trees, and shrubs alive is another remarkable undertaking. To accomplish this we dug our pond which is about 2 acres. This provides us with all the water for our irrigation system. Our next project was to plant a diverse planting of native shrubs around the perimeter of the pond. The soil we used to build with was clay as a base, topped off with 2’ topsoil. The dirt I refer to as glacier dirt. There is no organic matter in this soil, trying to plant this was a disaster. This helped us draw the conclusion prairies will not grow everywhere. This is a process to re-build the organic matter in the soil and rebuild the ecosystem for the soil food web. It has also led us to revolutionize our process through enhanced soil and our product Ready to Use.