Roses are red. Violets are blue. But sometimes they can be yellow, too. Or even white. Roughly 20 species of violets grow in Illinois, and many have heart-shaped leaves with five petals on blooms ...

May 26—The long wait to see the spring woods open up and produce new wildflowers was worth it. Quickly, as snow melted, the next phase began on the same forest floor that was covered by a snowpack ...

The other day, I was photographing a large clump of common blue violets on a neighbor’s lawn when she remarked that they were pretty, but “mostly weeds.” I said I know that violets can be banes of ...