During July and August, purple coneflowers and prairie blazing star add touches of lavender to Iowa road ditches planted in native prairie plants. Clusters of bright orange butterfly milkweed, compass plants extending large yellow, daisy-like flowers high above yellow seas of gray-headed coneflowers create mid-summer interest along roadways and prairie areas.

Iowans curious about the use of native plants and the state’s work restoring and preserving prairie vegetation should attend the Iowa Master Gardener summer series webinar July 26. The webinar is hosted by the coun ties of Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola and Sioux from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., on Tuesday, at Northwest Iowa Community College, in Sheldon, Building C, Room 305.

The webinar is open to the public. Master Gardeners can earn two hours of update training by attending.

Other hosting counties in the Farm News coverage area include Boone, Carroll, Cerro Gordo, Cherokee, Clay, Crawford, Greene, Marshall, Story and Woodbury. Contact those Extension offices for locations.

“Tallgrass Prairies of Iowa” is the topic of the webinar, the third in a series of four HYPERLINK “www.mastergardener.iastate.edu/info/summerwebinar2011.html” Garden Natives and Invasives 2011 sessions offered by the Master Gardener program.

Daryl Smith, from the HYPERLINK “www.tallgrassprairiecenter.org/” Tallgrass Prairie Center and University of Northern Iowa, discuss the history and reach of the Tallgrass Prairie Center and tell how the mission of the center to develop research, techniques, education and source-identified seed for restoration and preservation of prairie vegetation is carried out in the state.

The webinar series is made possible by the Iowa Master Gardener program, Iowa State University Extension and Department of Horticulture.

The final webinar in the series, scheduled for Aug. 23, will highlight the importance of native species; discuss the problems and related issues with invasive species in Iowa.