Bob, I guess it's entirely up to you if you want to keep the plants or not. I started a whole bunch from seed several years ago and planted them here. The reason I wanted them is they're supposed to be a Common Buckeye host plant. I never got any cats on the plants, but I saw the butterflies flying around the yard/garden. I had even been trying to decide if I even wanted to plant them in the first place after I read how big they get, and they didn't really look all that pretty to me, judging from pictures I've seen of them. I decided to give them a chance...to me if 3 years of having a plant doesn't produce results, i.e. eggs on the plants, then I seriously consider taking them out, which is what I did. I never even saw a single butterfly nectar on the flowers (although I mostly wanted them for host plants). The plants must have gotten about 7 feet tall because they were well over my head (I'm 5-1/2 feet tall), and they had a bad habit of falling over. I tried several methods of staking them up and the weight of the plants would always pull everything over anyway. I got tired of it. Another thing that I didn't like about the plants is that they got white powdery mildew on them. So now they're gone and I'm planting snapdragons in their place, only I can't remember if the buckeyes lay eggs on the short ones, tall ones, or both. Cathy

Western towees love the shelter of a white spruce. Birds make a beeline for that tree when storms are in the area. (Yes, unfortunately, it is a large tree, and not something you plant in a backyard.) Smaller birds are always foraging in the branches. Birds search in any pines with seed cones or nuts. Lodgepole pine is a favorite. Birds also eat wild hazelnuts. In season (when there is fruit), birds can be found in red-twig dogwood shrubs, dogwood trees (for cedar waxwings and scrubjays), chokecherry, wild cherry, and blueberry shrubs. I would think crabapples would be essential fall-winter food in your area. Birds move very quickly from food source to food source. This is especially true during migration periods. You'll see them for a couple days as they use up the available seeds, nuts, and fruit, and then they move on. I'd say plant a variety of trees and shrubs with the objective of providing shelter and/or a food source. And one of the most critical items that people seldom think of ...clean water.

I started Solidago speciosa from seed last year, and they did not flower the first year, just made small basal clumps of leaves. Now I'm trying to figure out where they're coming up in my meadow garden. You might want to consider Asters - they are lovely late season bloomers, and all 3 species I started from seed last Spring bloomed a little in fall. One species that might work okay in a container is Aster laevis (aka Symphyotrichum laeve or Smooth blue aster). It has pretty lavender-blue flowers, nice foliage, and Bill Cullina says it one of the best for garden use with "a neat habit, rarely needs staking, and is very drought-tolerant".

I'm not going to be growing very many. I have so many, already, that I'm not sure I have room for very many more. I'll just have to wait and see what comes up, for the most part. I know I will be planting: Roadside Agrimony (Agrimonia striata) Tall bellflowers (Campanula americana) Lead plant (Amorpha canescens) Partridge peas (Chamaecrista fasciculata) Sunflowers That might be all. Amy, I grew rudbeckia submentosa last year at Lincoln--it performed so much more beautifully than hirta. It looks about the same, but very sturdy and happy, and longer blooming. And I have many here that are suited to not full sun, so not at Lincoln What ARE those! LOL Wild geraniums, columbines, American beautyberries, spiderwort, spikenard, Jacob's ladder. I took my Husker Red penstemons to the school, though, because they love sun.