Hi pvmiscaccount, Welcome to The Seed Exchange. Please see addressing newbie and newer member issues for instructions on getting your member Page email link set up so that you can easily be reached for trading. You might also want to post at The Native Plant Exchange too. Though that forum/exchange is rather show, someone might have some things you are looking for as well as being interested in what you have for trade. I have Asclepias tuberosa from 2010, as well as Asclepias Incarnata from 2009 and may have other natives of interest to you some later. I am interested in your Anemone patens and especially interested in your Gentiana andrewsii - Bottle gentian (Possibly soon) ...no rush though. chemocurl...aka Sue Sue

I can find quite a bit of the wild stuff, but certainly couldn't afford to send that much. Chicory, plantain, fireweed, Purslane, wood sorrel, Solomon's seal (false?), some type of gooseberry (wild ones, when I go to Idaho) Jerusalem artichoke, red alder, skunk cabbage--maybe, kinnikinnick, MAYBE serviceberry, wild ginger (certainly not 40 of them, though), possibly Oregon grape, bedstraw, burdock, not sure on monkeyflower, cascara, snowberry, all heal, yarrow, yellow violets, Virginia creeper, maybe nuphar polysepalus, wild strawberries (fragaria virginiana and chiloensis).

OMG Marie - I don't want to be a downer, but did you read the negative feedback at Garden Watchdog? The most protracted rant came from a lady who did exactly what you are proposing and sounded like she wanted to go back in time and dope slap that very idea out of her own head by the end of her ordeal. That being said, I HAVE done a group order of Helebores on a smaller scale from SG and it was OK. There were only three of us - Dee, another swapper friend and I. The plants were nice enough, but small as should be expected. Nothing that has inspired me to order from him again, but I wouldn't totally rule it out. I get their emails and laugh at their pricing because whether it is something exotic-ish or as common as Garlic chives he seems to charge the same two pricing structures for everything and presents it with the same huckster patter. Of course he also has some good growing information to impart also. He must really be a character in person.

Nj, if I've got it right, you are planning a higher-6" to 8"-mowing just for this coming growing season, and perhaps the one following, to interupt weed seed cycles. IF that is so, it is indeed a normal part of meadow establishment. I guess to answer your question, the only one that will flower despite this early-stage mowing is what you've already identified-Rudbeckia hirta. Not saying none of these others won't also, just that in my experience R. hirta is one that can be dependably counted on to flower despite these early-stage mowings. The thing I'm not getting though is the presence of the tree and shrub species within this mix. Not at all saying I don't like them, just I don't see how you can have a meadow in which woody plants are purposely part of the mix. Are you intending to have these woody species around the perimeter? That could work. Then, once you've got your meadow up and running, fire is the best tool, but timely mowing can and often does suffice, depending on other circumstances. Or, one can purposely let the meadow undergo natural succession. That's what happens in nature, in areas of the country like yours and mine which were formerly primarily forested. Meadows would indeed exist, but as a seral stage following a disturbance of some kind. When we create these things, we have to bring the disturbance to them if we want it to remain as meadow, prairie, etc. Quite an extensive plant list BTW. +oM