That's fine. My back yard is a flower and shrub garden for butterflies bees and hummingbirds (and other native, non-destructive insects), and I do use as many native plants as I can, but I'm not really rabid about it unless it's in an area I've reclaimed from The Asian Bush Honeysuckle Menace. It's just an annual anyway, and it's in one small flowerbed.

Hello Leftwood. I would like to do a trade with you. I need more Allium stellatum as I could only collect about a dozen seeds. Also would like Penstemon grandiflora. And any more natives that you think would be good to add to my wildflower collection. The zagadanus is native from Meeker co. as are almost all others. I forgot to add Lilium philadelphicum to my list above. Can you send me email please?

For future years you might want to try just collecting a little seed for propagating and leaving the rest standing for the birds and insects. It not only provides food and shelter for wildlife but the dried plant material helps protect the crown of the plant and the soil. I always think the sturdier stems like echinacea are quite pretty with little snow caps on them during the winter. While eating the birds will drop some seed that will germinate too. In the spring you can cut back or pull away the plant debris and chop up some to use as mulch. Too much mulch though and the fallen seeds won't germinate and grow. In the winter use the seed you collected or bought and wintersow them in a weed free potting mix in the proper containers (see the wintersowing forum faq or wintersown.org if unfamiliar with method). They will have much higher germination rates than scattered seed and you can protect them until they are a little bigger and sturdier. Then you can use these seedlings as a guide to help you see what in your wildflower bed is desirable and what is a weed if you aren't familiar with the seedlings. You can use them to plug any holes in the bed or plant them elsewhere if the bed is filling in nicely on its own. This method has worked pretty well for me so far.

do not expect quality fruit.. from a self sown plant ... it might be... but who wants to wait 5 or 10 years.. to find out.. is a callery pear ... which is very invasive in some areas .... straight down pix are hard... and you seem to be afraid of the plants.. get a little closer next time ... [and your feet give away the straight down.. lol] ken