Lori, Thanks for the info. I did some research to see how close these places are to me. It is nice to have options. amelanchier, last weekend I was traveling to central PA, I checked out your link, there are several places I'd like to visit, but the only one that was on the way is no longer open. :( Oh well, I am a lot closer now to Bowman's Hill than I used to be. I went to a place I used to frequent and bought 15 bare root trees. I'd better finish planting them before I buy anything else. David

The flowers on the second plant really look like ragweed flowers to me. 8 feet tall could be Giant Ragweed, Ambrosia trifida. The leaves I can see in the photo don't look quite right, but a larger image should make it clearer. Or it could be a different species from the two common ones I'm familiar with. USDA lists a bunch of species and I don't have time to go through them now. On a side note, while looking for this I went to the Dan Tenaglia's old Missouri Plants website and discovered that the Missouri Botanical Garden has taken it over and is updating it. That site was the first wildflower ID site I found on the internet back when all this was pretty new and was a real inspiration to me about what you could do along those lines, as well as being a very useful ID tool. It still is, for that matter. I'm really glad it's being continued. WW

That one is not azure sage. It is a salvia farinacea that I collected on the Blanco River. It might be a natural hybrid but I don't think so. Azure sage is pretty rare around here. Only in a few people's gardens. I would not find a large bank full of it in the wild. It was growing in a wooded edge not in full sunlight in a pasture that the azure sage likes. The color has a tad of lavender in the blue that did not come out in the pictures. A friend of mine collected a bi-colored one that I am tempted to buy ,....one day. Not this year, I have cabinets , a bed , and sofa, wood floor I need to obtain and install first. I am still trying to unsee my garden but those damn weeds got me out ripping this morning. I need to rip up 30' of star malta thistle. ARGH!!!!!

too many requests in one post ... imo .... second pick looks like alysum ... another pic .. the blue flowers are annual bachelor buttons ... aka cornflower .. and in my coffeee buzz... i cant think of the latin name ... last pic reminds me of forget me not .. myositis... but i wonder why its blooming now ... google the names.. flip to images.. and compare ken