Once you get away from the city and it's manicured lawns, there is a wonder to be seen. The ditches and lands along the roads will soon be in bloom. Purples, whites, blues and yellows will be everywhere. Wildflowers in Nebraska bloom from March to October. At any time in between something is showing off.

Since the 1960s the Nebraska Department of Roads has been actively restoring the roadside ditches to native prairie plants. Not only is it beautiful but it also provides wildlife habitat. Generally these native plantings require less expense in maintenance costs (fuel for mowing, etc.).

Believe it or not, the ditches-also referred to as the "right of way", which is the state owned buffer adjacent to our highways, encompasses just about 153,000 acres. That is almost the size of the Bessey Division of the Nebraska national Forest near Halsey and the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge combined. Passing motorists may merely think that the state is beautifying the roadside and there is nothing wrong with that, but there is much more to it than basic aesthetics.

This roadside vegetation helps to control the blowing snows of the harsh Nebraska winter like a living snow fence. The plants also help to stabilize soil and reduce erosion, especially after a road construction project.

In drought years haying of certain portions of the right of way is allowed to provide feed for cattle. The mix of seeds used in the program contains a mixture of plants that can withstand the wettest or driest years.

In the early spring and summer purple poppy mallow, blue flaw and prairie phlox emerge, displaying there varied hues of purples, blues and pinks with Mexican red hat, prickly poppy and black-eyed Susans not far behind.

Oceans of sunflowers reveal their sunny dispositions in September and October, providing a vital seed crop that will sustain many birds through winter.

Goldenrods our state flower and some asters are still in bloom well into October.

Some of my favorites are the beautiful yucca plants and their tall stalks covered with rows of pale yellow, down turned flowers.

If you look closely into one of these blooms you can sometimes find the unique moth responsible for pollinating the yucca.

I also enjoy seeing the yellow flower on the prickly pear cactus. Such a fragile bloom on a plant with an otherwise rugged and hardy disposition seems almost as an oxymoron, its just one of nature's wondrous creations.

Rare flowers such as the blowout penstemon with its amazing vanilla like aroma and the western prairie fringed orchid can be found in Nebraska too.

One cannot enjoy the plant life of Nebraska without acknowledging the beautiful prairie grasses. Big and little bluestem, buffalograss, switch grass, indiangrass and many, many others depending on the time of year contribute their rusty reds, blues, green and golden hues to the prairie ecosystem.

For more informationto to www.nebraskatransportation.org/docs/flowers