At the garden center outside McGuckin Hardware, many people seek native flowers. The dainty columbine, the state flower, and the lesser-known shooting star flower are both big sellers this year. The columbine comes in shades of yellow, pink, and purple, and is sold in a medium-height and a miniature variety. The bright pink shooting star has petals that blow backward, as if the fragile flower is flying through the air. Both are commonly found along any of Boulder County's hiking trails.
French gardens contain a variety of flowers such as petunias, bacopas, daisies and allysum.
Paul Aiken Riggs says that miniature varieties of columbines do very well in rock gardens, among other places. For both native and non-native plants and flowers to thrive in Colorado, they must be able to take the hot, dry climate of the state. Riggs says that yarrow, which varies in size from 3 feet to ground cover, is a good choice for Boulder and the foothills. It's not the hardest to grow here, but it's not the easiest either. It's beautiful and tall enough to hide things in your garden like tomato cages, but Colorado's wind storms can be tough on it.