Homeowners may think they want a patch of prairie in their landscape, but people have very different notions of what that prairie might look like.

Answers from 300 homeowners surveyed at the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources 1997 Fall Festival of Color show people want colorful flowers. Grasses, true prairies' major component, aren't that popular.

Fifty-six percent of those surveyed preferred plots containing annual flowers but no prairie grasses; only 34 percent actually liked the prairie grass-only plots.

"That was a big surprise," said IANR Horticulturist Greg Davis, who conducted the survey.

"People didn't like prairie grasses. They liked the annual and perennial flowers, like gaillardia, best."

Annual flowers were in full bloom during the survey, and perennial wildflowers and grasses hadn't reached their peak, which may have affected the results, Davis said.

Davis organized the consumer preference survey as part of his research on sustainable landscapes at the John Seaton Anderson Turfgrass and Ornamental Research Facility at the university's Agricultural Research and Development Center near Mead. His research plots there represent 11 different types of prairie plantings homeowners might use, including annual and perennial wildflowers alone and in combination, and prairie grasses alone and in various combinations with wildflowers.

Plots also receive different management treatments: irrigated, non-irrigated, hand-weeded and non-weeded. Summer 1997 was the first year of a long-term project designed to monitor how prairie plantings change over time.

Davis is studying prairie plantings from the homeowner's perspective.

"People go into this assuming they can plant a prairie and it will be low maintenance, Davis said. "Because we're out here on the Plains they think it will sort of take care of itself."

The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum's Wishart Horticultural Fund and Stock Seeds Inc. help fund Davis' research.

-Monica Manton Norby