Kelly D. Norris

Kelly D. Norris Plantsman, planting designer, artist, author working to plant the world a better place! Award-winning author and plantsman.

The first director of horticulture at Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden (Des Moines, Iowa). Creator of Three Oaks Garden (Des Moines, Iowa).

A June prairie blizzard delivered in the form of Hesperostipa spartea (porcupine grass) as it goes to seed and begins it...
06/05/2026

A June prairie blizzard delivered in the form of Hesperostipa spartea (porcupine grass) as it goes to seed and begins its quasi-summer dormancy. Penstemon cobaea (prairie beardtongue) have peaked, just in time to usher in the various coneflowers (Echinacea paradoxa, simulata, pallida, etc.) It's also been the best year for Gillenia stipulata (syn. Porteranthus stipulatus), as seen in the second image, thanks to the deer's generosity in ignoring them this year. I first encountered this plant on my first botanical excursion to the Ozarks in 2009, growing midway down an exposed, grassy slope. It finally entered my planting practice nearly a decade later, and I've not been without it since.

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

I took this photo four days ago and it already seems outdated. We're in that "leaping" stage of spring. But I'm a big fa...
05/31/2026

I took this photo four days ago and it already seems outdated. We're in that "leaping" stage of spring. But I'm a big fan of the silver and green vibe of with Amorpha canescens (leadplant) leading the charge with Lonicera reticulata 'Kintzley's Ghost' (Kintzley's Ghost grape honeysuckle) playing backup. This isn't a color scheme in the design, first and foremost. It's a direct connection to our precedent natural history: the prairie in spring offers glimmers of bold colors sailing in a sea of green, a promise of much more biomass to come. We grew these leadplants from a collection I made in 2020, and six patient years later, they've finally grown into their own. With any luck, they'll be with us for years to come. We're gardening for the long haul here...

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

Spring creeps, then leaps. The first coneflowers have unfurled this week in at , along with a bevy of Penstemon cobae...
05/29/2026

Spring creeps, then leaps. The first coneflowers have unfurled this week in at , along with a bevy of Penstemon cobaea (prairie beardtongue). The awns of Hesperostipa spartea (porcupine grass) are glimmering in the evening breeze. The pewter foliage of Amorpha canescens (leadplant) has never looked richer. I love this time of year and its looming sense of exuberance. We know there's much more coming.

A busy couple weeks of logistics and installations had me thinking about planting patterns. I shared a few thoughts in the May newsletter that went out earlier this week. If you missed it, sign up at the link in my bio and I'll send it to you. Although I took the image after I sent the newsletter, the second photo depicts a lovely matrix of Euthamia gymnospermoides (western grass-leaved goldenrod) weaving through the emergent profiles of penstemon, Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed) and Sporobolus asper (rough dropseed).

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

A trio of spring vignettes from the here at last Friday evening before the clouds rolled in. Moody shadows to offset...
05/19/2026

A trio of spring vignettes from the here at last Friday evening before the clouds rolled in. Moody shadows to offset the Amsonia illustris 'Seventh Inning Stretch' (Seventh Inning Stretch bluestar), Zizia aurea (golden alexander), Baptisia 'Smoking Gun' (Smoking Gun false indigo), Triosteum perfoliatum 'Chocolate River' (Chocolate River horse gentian), and a raft of Camassia just going over. Eight years on, many of the structural herbaceous perennials have fulfilled their promise of a shrubbier, textural prairie where grasses share space rather than dominate it. You can see this kind of prairie developing with increasing fire intervals (and since fire isn't a management option in the city, that informs our use of the precedent).

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

Our friend and colleague Matty Young () recently commented, "Your garden isn't just a garden. It's a place." Indeed, thi...
05/14/2026

Our friend and colleague Matty Young () recently commented, "Your garden isn't just a garden. It's a place." Indeed, this place is churning through spring right now, seemingly on a rocket ship to the solstice. Waves of Zizia aurea (golden Alexander), Packera aurea (golden ragwort), Aquilegia canadensis (wild columbine) lead the charge with dozens of other associates at lower levels of abundance. This view through The Valley, our homage to a wet ditch, needs more editing, which I peck away at every evening. A massive colony of Anemone canadensis (Canada anemone) is just about to pop. This is the kind of garden geared towards roving, spreading tendencies; green sponges for infiltrating water as it makes its way down our hill.



ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

Happy World Collage Day ()! Here are two more from my Prairie Meditations series that I shared back in January, subtle i...
05/09/2026

Happy World Collage Day ()! Here are two more from my Prairie Meditations series that I shared back in January, subtle iterations on the same idea that get me to thinking about the relative abundances of charismatic species. These are digital photography collages produced by layering parts of different images taken on the same day under similar lighting conditions. The photos date from September 2024 on a splendid day afield at Nachusa Grasslands in Illinois. The collages reimagine what we've lost in the Midwestern landscape, alongside the computational possibilities of what could exist again, all grounded in the hope of what still thrives in these important remnants today.

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

On a theme of spring vignettes: Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Storm Cloud' (Storm Cloud bluestar), our Zizia aurea 'Early B...
05/07/2026

On a theme of spring vignettes: Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Storm Cloud' (Storm Cloud bluestar), our Zizia aurea 'Early Bird' strain, Narcissus 'Moonlight Sensation', Erigeron pulchellus 'Lynnhaven Carpet', a few sticks left from last year, and the ruddy foliage of Monarda bradburiana (eastern horsemint) and Penstemon digitalis (foxglove beardtongue) seeding around. Amorpha nana (dwarf false indigo) may come into flower this weekend. The cool temperatures this week have throttled the pace of spring by several days, but some species still scurry ahead.

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

Our Victorian Wild Garden project in Des Moines is at the peak of spring exuberance right now. From the outset, the site...
05/03/2026

Our Victorian Wild Garden project in Des Moines is at the peak of spring exuberance right now. From the outset, the site presented a thrilling collision of a historic garden and contemporary notions about resiliency. The garden is full of patina; from treasured objects to horticultural memories, still growing after decades of cultivation. The master plan defines a series of garden episodes, each with its own cast of characters and story. Even after three years on the project, each visit seems to reveal something new about the place, as was the case on Thursday when I spotted a patch of Viola canadensis (Canada white violet), an uncommon native, neither recently planted nor recalled in the garden’s recent history. Throughout the project, we’ve worked to blend old and new seamlessly to reveal something authentic and sincere; there’s plenty to work with here. You can read more about the brief and see photos from the last two growing seasons at the link in my bio.

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

Reflecting on spring and its inherent volatility. Entering the ninth growing season here at , I've recently pored throu...
04/28/2026

Reflecting on spring and its inherent volatility. Entering the ninth growing season here at , I've recently pored through photos that chronicle the genesis of the front yard meadow here and also the decline of our biggest bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), a story for another day. These images from 2023 capture its dominance over the meadow, even before it fully leafs out, with stately and refined branching. Mourn we may, but the landscape remains in motion, even if we don't fully grasp where the journey will take us. Some of this might spill over into the final draft of the April newsletter, which is currently underway and set to be sent later this week. (You can always sign up to receive our monthly missive called Planting Notes at the link in my bio.) Do you chronicle the passage of time in your garden or work?

ABOUT: Kelly D. Norris is an award-winning plantsman and author based at Three Oaks Garden in Des Moines, Iowa. His studio explores the intersections of people, plants, and place through ecological, site-specific design and art. Kelly’s garden work has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and in numerous television, radio, and digital media appearances. His latest book Your Natural Garden debuted in 2025 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly and his team specialize in creating diverse and dynamic gardens that reimagine places for consilient encounters with the natural world. For more information or to discuss a possible commission, please contact via the link in the bio!

Today, I'm reflecting on the loss of two major figures who made careers at the intersection of biodiversity and horticul...
04/27/2026

Today, I'm reflecting on the loss of two major figures who made careers at the intersection of biodiversity and horticulture. The news of the loss of both .dunnett, leading horticultural ecologist and planting designer, and Dr. Peter Raven, the eminent botanist and former president of Missouri Botanical Garden, hit me hard yesterday; a poignant reminder of how fleeting life is. They leave behind enormous legacies, which will no doubt continue to inspire new ways of living with the landscapes we call home.

📸 photos from my July 2017 visit to the Beech Gardens at the Barbican in London. I was so surprised to receive a message from him on Facebook after I posted these, and I was sad to learn that I'd missed him in the same spot by only a day. He was kind to comment and encourage me from afar in the years that followed. His practice and scholarship will live on in the world as deservedly legendary.

Address

2800 University Ave
Des Moines, IA
50311

Website

https://linktr.ee/kellydnorris

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