Don’t miss this month’s virtual garden chat where we’ll connect and learn about “Charismatic Carnivorous Plants” with our guest speaker Kerry Wixted. Carnivorous plants seem like something from folklore, but did you know we have almost 20 species growing in Maryland? Learn about carnivorous plant adaptations and species that exist around the world and in Maryland. Details and registration link here.
Featured Highlights
July 4, 2026 marks our nation’s semiquincentennial, our 250th anniversary. And while family gatherings, great food on the grill, trips to the beach, and nighttime fireworks may be on everyone’s mind, celebrating native plants, especially those that resemble fireworks, are at the top of my priority list this holiday.
A number of native plants mimic fireworks with their bright colors or their various spiky, arching, or globe-shaped blooms that burst outward, showcasing their beauty all summer long in our native gardens, parks, meadows, woodlands, and roadsides.
On this 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, I encourage you to take a moment to stroll through your yard, a public garden or a local park and delight in the floral fireworks you may find.
Walking around Mystical Gardens (our personal gardens) or around the various public native gardens that we support, I’ve spotted many Maryland native plants that burst with dazzling color and explosive, radiating shapes reminiscent of fireworks. The list below, ordered by their typical blooming sequence in the region, includes why these plants are reminiscent of fireworks.
Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)
Bloom Time: Spring to mid-summer (March – July)
Coral honeysuckle produces striking clusters of elongated, trumpet-shaped coral-red flowers with vibrant yellow interiors. The way these tubular blooms flare out at the tips resembles a ring of fiery rocket bursts.
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Bloom Time: Early to late summer (June – August)
The broad, rosy-purple petals sweep backward while the large, spiky, orange-brown central cone juts straight upward. Together, they resemble a spinning firework wheel or a starburst exploding outward.
While purple coneflower is a staple in Maryland pollinator gardens, botanically speaking, it is not native to Maryland. It is naturally indigenous to the Midwestern and Southeastern United States, but it has escaped cultivation and naturalized in various parts of the state.
Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Bloom Time: Summer (May – August)
Butterflyweed erupts in flat-topped clusters of brilliant golden-orange and yellow blooms. The dense, upward-reaching petals give the impression of sparks flying upward in a bright, fiery explosion.
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
Bloom Time: Early to mid-summer (June – August)
Buttonbush produces perfect, globular spheres of creamy white flowers. From these balls, slender styles protrude outwards in every direction, closely mimicking a classic, round aerial firework shell (or a pincushion).
Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Bloom Time: Mid-summer to late summer (June – September)
Also known as beebalm, its flowers form shaggy, spherical, lavender-to-pink clusters. The individual, thin tubular petals fan out in all directions, looking exactly like a burst of fuzzy, colorful glitter.
Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
Bloom Time: Mid-summer to late summer (July – August)
Culver’s root features slender, tapering, candelabra-like spikes of tiny white flowers that bloom simultaneously, radiating outward and upward like a multi-tiered firework display.
Scarlet Beebalm (Monarda didyma)
Bloom Time: Mid-summer to late summer (July – September)
Scarlet beebalm features firework-like, spherical clusters similar to wild bergamot, but in a dazzling, fiery scarlet red.
Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)
Bloom Time: Mid-summer to late summer (July – October)
Blazing stars shoot tall, spear-like spikes upward from the ground, topped with purple flowers that are fluffy and open progressively from the top of the stalk down, mimicking the falling sparks of a skyrocket.
Fireworks Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’)
Bloom Time: Late summer to mid-autumn (August – October)
True to its name, this specific cultivar of wrinkle-leaf goldenrod explodes into cascading, arching wands of tiny, brilliant-yellow flowers. The loose, airy sprays look exactly like a shower of golden sparks. Although this is a cultivar, it is a top performer in Mt. Cuba’s Solidago for the Mid-Atlantic.
For more details on these and other native plants in Maryland, visit the Maryland Native Plant Finder.
July 2026 Events
Thank you to chapter members who were involved in activities and events during June! Our July events have something for everyone, and volunteers are always welcome! If you would like to volunteer at any of our upcoming events or at our garden workdays, please email us. We rely on volunteers to help make our events successful and to make our garden workdays so much fun (“Many hands make light work!). Your support helps our chapter grow and ensures our vision of native plants and natural landscapes thriving in every community.
Tots in the Front Yard: Easy Peasy Tree and Flower Identification
📆 Saturday, July 11th, 2026
⏰ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
📍Leonardtown Library, 23630 Hayden Farm Ln, Leonardtown, MD, 20650 Map
Explore the Leonardtown Library’s Front Yard Pollinator Garden with magnifying glasses and children’s binoculars looking for and identifying birds and bugs in the garden. We can loan our guests magnifying glasses and binoculars but if you have your own, please feel free to bring them. Read more…
Annemarie Gardens Insectival
📆 Saturday, July 18th, 2026
⏰ 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
📍Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center, 13470 Dowell Rd, Solomons, MD, 20629 Map
What’s an INSECTIVAL? It’s an insect festival! Join us for a day of buggy fun as we explore and get creative with the world of insects. Enjoy activities for all ages, meet community groups who love bugs, and have fun roaming the garden, galleries, and indoor classrooms as you explore and have fun with insects! Celebrate these invertebrates and all the wonderful wildlife that depends on them. Featured activities: live insect zoo, butterfly tent, insect museum, garden hunts, buggy crafts, carnival games, costume contest, market vendors, food trucks, and more!
Come join Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay, The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and Southern MD Audubon Society; we’ll be located in the “Hosts with the Most” zone. Our joint theme: Protect Habitat > Protect Insects > Protect Birds. Read more…
Friends of Patuxent Local Community Environmental Fair
📆 Saturday, July 25th, 2026
⏰ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
📍Patuxent Research Refuge, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD, 20708 Map
Friends of Patuxent’s Local Community Environmental Fair is part of 90th-year Anniversary celebrations the Friends of Patuxent are hosting for Patuxent Research Refuge.
Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay will be partnering with Nurture Natives for this fun-filled famliy event. We will have information on monarch butterflies and their host plants and nectar plants, as well as information on our organization. Activities will also include our wildly popular Plant Pong, selfie photo frames, Monarch Cootie Catchers, and Butterfly Origami. We will also be distributing free milkweed plants (subject to availability). Read more...
Garden Chat – “Charismatic Carnivorous Plants” with Kerry Wixted
📆 Tuesday, July 28th, 2026
⏰ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
📍Online/Virtual
Join us for our bi-monthly Garden Chat to connect and learn about “Charismatic Carnivorous Plants” with our guest speaker Kerry Wixted. Carnivorous plants seem like something from folklore, but did you know we have almost 20 species growing in Maryland? Learn about carnivorous plant adaptations and species that exist around the world and in Maryland. Read more…
Recent News Blogs
If you’re not following our News blogs, please check them out. This is one of the ways we keep our members and community up to date on what’s happening in our chapter. As always, we invite all members to contribute to our chapter’s News blog and/or social media channels. If you have anything related to native plants that you’d like to write about for publication on our News blog or social media, please email us, along with any photos or videos, and we’ll be happy to publish them. Likewise, if your work in the community has been recognized in the media or if you’ve received an award, please let us know so we can share it with our chapter members and the national office. We know our members are doing a lot of great work out in our community, and we’d like to share and recognize your accomplishments!
Pollinator Week 2026 Highlights
As National Pollinator Week wraps up, we take a moment to celebrate our highlights. Though the official festivities conclude, the vital work of these tiny creatures continues, sustaining our flowers, fueling our food supply, and ensuring a vibrant, blooming world. Continue reading
Pollinator Week June 22-28, 2026
National Pollinator Week 2026 is observed during the week of June 22-28. “Pollinator Week is an annual celebration in support of pollinator health that was initiated and is managed by Pollinator Partnership. It is a time to raise awareness for pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them. Continue reading
Jewels of the Night – A Sign of Summer
Welcome summer! The summer solstice 2026 – Sunday, June 21, 2026, at 4:24 a.m. EDT – marks the longest day of the year and the astronomical beginning of summer, occurring when the Earth’s tilt reaches its maximum inclination toward the Sun. Summer brings so many joys in a natural habitat, including the flickering and flashing […] Continue reading
We’ve Moved!
Plant propagation by Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay has moved to Mystical Gardens at NikHaven, the home of Marlene and Bill Smith, our chapter President and Vice-President. After seed stratification and sowing at Providence Greenhouses this past winter, followed by transplanting in May at the UMD Extension Dairy Farm location in Gambrills, it was time to […] Continue reading
Believe It or Not, Seed Collecting Has Started in Our Native Gardens!
Seed collection time, like bloom time, differs from native plant to native plant. While I anxiously await each species to bloom as the seasons progress from spring to summer to fall, seed collection follows a similar progression and has been underway since late April here in my southern Maryland gardens. Collections began with Packera aurea […] Continue reading
June 2026 Happenings! Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay
Happy Meteorological Summer! Thank you to all our chapter members who were involved in various activities and events during May. We closed the month with our wildly successful NatureFest. With over 1,000 registrants and over 50 vendors, it was our biggest and most successful NatureFest in its 6-year history. Thank you to our chapter members […] Continue reading
ICYMI (In Case You Missed It)
The summer issue of the Wild Ones Journal is now available to memberes. Inside this issue:
- Indigenous perspectives on Cultural Burning and the role of fire in caring for the land
- How to think about native plants, fire safety and the landscape around your home
- Tick prevention tips that support both human health and biodiversity
- Real-world examples of HOAs transitioning from turfgrass to native landscapes
- A summer foraging favorite: black raspberries
- School pollinator gardens growing with support from Wild Ones chapters
- Why snags, stumps and logs deserve a place in habitat gardens
This issue continues the Journal’s 2026 theme: The Year of Climate Action, exploring how native plants help create resilient landscapes and healthier communities.
During our hot summer days, take a little time to settle in, cool off and explore the newest issue of the Wild Ones Journal. Members can read the full issue here.
Wildly appreciative of your continued support!
✍️M.Smith
Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay is deeply rooted in native plants and cultivating partnerships, while striving to educate, advocate, and collaborate to connect people and native plants for a healthy planet. Our vision is native plants and natural landscapes thriving in every community. Check out our Events page, Google calendar, Facebook, and/or Instagram for our upcoming events. And don’t forget to subscribe to our new YouTube channel and email subscriber list!
Wild Ones’ mission is to promote native landscapes through education, advocacy and collaborative action.
We invite you to join Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay or find your local Wild Ones chapter here.
