Lowry finds that to make native plants appealing to the general public it is useful to use native wildflowers as an introduction. People have simply never seen them before, and that interests them. Our wildflowers are stunningly beautiful in mass. But even the interest in wildflowers is wrought with unreal expectations. Lowry receives calls from groups interested in adopting a highway who want instant stands of native flowers.
Restoration is far more complicated than simply seeding once, then going away.
Lowry also handles landscape architects whose clients want a slice of native prairie in their gardens. I tell them they really have to see one first, and they'll insist that isn't necessary. No matter how many times I tell clients that the grasses will go dormant and turn brown, they don't hear it until they see it. They don't understand that process over time is the real valuable commodity. What they want is a look, not a reservoir of relationships.