Wildflowers to stimulate your senses – Sight, Smell, Feel, Taste and Sound

This list was compiled at the request of a customer who is looking to create a children’s Sensory Garden with some native Alberta Wildflowers. There are plants on this list that are not edible but all children should learn early in life not to eat anything they are unfamiliar with and to always get the approval of an adult. I think this is an interesting topic and great information to share.

• Achillea millefolium – Yarrow: Smells nice and leaves have a soft texture. This plant has medicinal properties and is edible.
• Agastache foeniculum - Giant Hyssop: Smells like licorice and is edible.
• Allium cernuum - Nodding Onion: Smells like onion and stems and leaves have smooth texture. Edible.
• Allium schoenoprasum - Wild Chives: Smells like chives and stems and leaves have smooth texture. Edible.
• Antennaria species – Pussytoes: Flowers and foliage have a fuzzy texture, flower looks like a cat’s paw.
• Artemisia species – Sage: Smells like sage, leaves have a soft texture. This is a Ceremonial plant.
• Aster conspicuus - Showy Aster: Leaves have an interesting rough texture, very pretty flowers.
• Cerastium arvense - Field Chickweed: Sweet Smelling Flowers, mat forming leaves have a cool soft texture. Edible.
• Dodecatheon pulchellum - Saline Shooting Star: Stems and leaves have a smooth rubber texture; flower looks like a shooting star.
• Eriogonum species - Interesting form and foliage texture, flowers and leaves change color throughout the season.
• Fragaria virginiana - Wild Strawberry: Pretty flowers, tart berries and the leaves turn red in the fall.
• Gaillardia aristata - Brown-eyed Susan: Large bright flowers, round seed heads and leaves have a rough texture.
• Galium boreale - Northern Bedstraw: Fine-textured foliage, sweet smelling flowers & foliage which is very colorful in the fall.
• Geranium viscosissimum - Sticky Geranium: Bright magenta flowers that employ a catapult seed dispersal mechanism and glandular foliage that turns bright red in the fall.
• Geum triflorum - Three Flowered Avens/Old Mans Whiskers: Hairy foliage, velvety flowers and fuzzy seeds heads that go from burgundy to beige.
• Grindelia squarrousa - Curly-Cup Gumweed: Glandular foliage and sepals, sweet smelling flowers that resemble a Pineapple underneath (sepals).
• Helianthus petiolaris - Annual Sunflower: Large bright flowers with rough leaves and seed heads. The sound of bees buzzing is very loud during blooming as it attracts so many. Goldfinches come in droves to eat the seeds.
• Heuchera species: Leathery round low-growing foliage goes red in fall and upright narrow flower stems sway beautifully in the breeze.
• Hierochloe odorata - Sweet Grass: Smells sweet in the summer sun. Leaves goes through colorful changes in the fall turning yellow, orange, pink & beige.
• Koeleria macrantha - June Grass: Pretty white upright plumes turn to tight seeds heads on this upright narrow clumping grass.
• Liatris ligulistylis - Meadow Blazing Star: Upright stiff stems with narrow leaves, feathery purple flowers in August.
• Linum lewisii - Blue Flax: Sky blue flowers and a long bloom period with a vase-like form. Seed pods are little balls hanging off trailing stems.
• Lonicera dioica - Twinning Honeysuckle Vine: Trumpet-shaped flowers are yellow, orange, red or a colorful combination of these colors. Flowers attract Hummingbirds which are wonderful to watch and hear. Red berries in August/Sept form in cup-shaped leaves and attract birds.
• Mentha arvensis - Wild Mint: Smells like Mint, great along pathways where foot traffic will bring out the scent. Edible.
• Monarda fistulosa - Wild Bergamot: Foliage smells sweet and lasts all summer, flowers are big lavender pompoms that attract Hummingbirds and Butterflies. Edible, used to make Earl Grey tea.
• Oxytropis species: Sweet smelling flowers and upright flower stems turn into rattles as the seed pods dry. Interesting foliage which can be hairy.
• Penstemon nitidus - Smooth Blue Beardtongue: Rubbery bluish green leaves and sky blue flowers that attract Hummingbirds and native Bees. Hard seed pods can be pointy.
• Phacelia sericea - Silky Scorpion Weed: Pretty silver foliage and very interesting pretty flowers will attract bees.
• Polemonium acutiflorum - Tall Jacobs Ladder: Tall flowers smells sweet while foliage is skunky and looks like a ladder. Lots of blooms and long bloom period.
• Pulsatilla patens - Prairie Crocus: First wildflower of spring has pretty flowers and seed heads that turn into puff balls.
• Rhodiola rosea - Roseroot: Has dark red flowers and foliage turns red in the cooler temps. Also see Sedum.
• Rubus idaeus - Wild Red Raspberry: Prickly stems produce white flowers and a tasty red berry.
• Sedum species: Rubbery succulent foliage is interesting and neat to touch. Roots easily. Flowers are bright and showy.
• Silene acaulis - Moss Campion: Tight growing foliage is mat-forming and neat to touch. Pretty pink flowers.
• Sisyrinchium montanum - Blue Eyed Grass: This small Iris has pretty blue and yellow flowers on the ends of the foliage that turn into dangling balls as they go into seed. Upright narrow form and funky seed heads make it interesting even after flowering.
• Solidago rigida - Stiff Goldenrod: This plant has thicker leaves that have an interesting texture, bright blooms in August have an interesting form, they will attract bees.
• Thalictrum venulosum - Veiny Meadow Rue: This plant is all about texture with fine leaves and flowers. It has male and female plants that have different flowers, both are needed to produce the nut-like seeds.
• Thermopsis rhombifolia - Golden Beans: Bright flowers in early spring are tough and touchable producing interesting seed pods that curl around.
• Zizia aptera - Heart-Leaved Alexanders: This bright bloomer has great form and flowers that hold their shape as they turn into seeds. Foliage turns burnt pink in the fall.