October 12, 2014
North Dakota State Flower - The Wild Prairie Rose
Botanical Name
Rosa arkansana
Year Adopted
1907
Peak Bloom
June
History
The first graduating class of the University of North Dakota chose colors of the Wild Prairie Rose as the school’s official color in 1889.
Fun Fact
The USDA considers it a weed!
The North Dakota’s State flower, the Wild Prairie Rose, has three distinct species: the Rosa Blanda, Arkansana, and Pratincula. Grown as an ornamental plant, the lovely flowers sport five dazzling showy pink petals with a tight complementary cluster of shiny yellow stamens in the center.
The Wild Prairie Rose is native to a large area of central North America, although it’s concentrated in the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. You’ll find it growing like wildfire across all of North Dakota, along roadsides, foothills, meadows and even cities. The extravagant pink perennial can sometimes be weedy or invasive.
From Fargo to Grand Forks and Bismarck to Red River, the Wild Prairie Rose can be found in abundance and is often picked by residents because of its wonderful scent. Considered a block shrub, these beauties are also found in South Dakota, Missouri and Minnesota.
One of the most stunning flowering crabapple varieties is the Prairie Rose Flowering Crab. It blossoms slightly later than other crab trees and the rose-like flowering is amazingly beautiful. Trees produce breathtaking double, deep pink flowers that are temptingly fragrant.
The Wild Prairie Rose is quite useful outside the garden as well! It’s often used in food, food additives, animal food, bee plants, fuels, poisons, medicines, and environmental compounds. In fact, the essence of Wild Prairie Rose can be used to help address issues which often underlay stress and health problems, helping to ‘untie’ or release mental/emotional energetic knots. Wild Prairie Rose essence helps transform emotions, attitudes or patterns of behavior to enhance development, growth and awareness.
Growing Information
Soil
Well-drained
Sun
Full Sun
Zones
2 - 11