Up around Tulsa the highways are not sprayed and only mowed after the wildflowers go to seed. Miles and miles of wildflowers bloom along the highways. I cannot vouch for the how it looks on the off roads - dirt roads - but at least you see the Tulsa area officials taking a stand for Nature. They are more progressive thinking up there. Over on the West side of Stillwater the same is true to a lesser extent, but only because of the university faculty and students. The local yo-calls don't seem that "into" the local Wildlife or preservation that I have ever seen, other than shooting it and making trails with their three wheels and other rec vehicles. The land on the west side and an area on the south side of Stillwater belongs to Okla State. They have a large experimental garden there that is open to the public. They also have lots of experimental sites dotted around in Payne county where they grow new crops, varieties of fruit, fruit trees, herbs & flowers. Once a year the plants are sold to the public. Too pricey for me, but all proceeds do go back to the school's horticultural or agricultural studies. On the west side is where Lake Karl Blackwell is located, which I believe was built by students many many years ago and is operated by the University. Loblolly pines were planted there about 30 years ago. There are little log cabins that can be rented and some are perpetually leased, so the families keep them for generations. My kids and I spent one Fourth of July at one of the cabins with a friend and her family. They were small, spacious and VERY NICE. In the spring the wildflowers along the highway are quite pretty. They were almost all seeded by university students. One year they seeded the median with Oxeye Daisies and for more than two miles they filled the grassy median. Sure beat just old Bermuda grass. It was lovely. But down this way...not the same story. As for the farmers and ranchers who leas that land....uh...well. They spray with herbicide. They use chemical fertilizers and they us pesticides. On the days they spray, I keep all the animals inside and you cannot go outside else you might choke to death on it. I am serious. Yes, I have called the authorities concerning my complaint about the herbicide and etc. I told them how it killed off all my wildflowers and even my herb garden. They smiled and told me, "Hey lady. This is farm country. What do you expect the farmers to do? They have to do what they have to do to make a living, and if that means spraying, then they spray. And I seriously doubt you would find any lawyer who would be willing to take your case, and if they did, it would end up costing you more than you lost." He was right. However, I have put the word out with lots of the locals about what I am doing out here, especially the owner of the local feedstore in town, (who is the one you call when you want to know ANYTHING around here), so I am sure Jim has told the local men about me and my "funny ways a doin' things". This town is like Mulberry USA, except that instead of going to the barber shop, they all meet over at Jim's feedstore and stand around jawing about "important stuff". I talked to the new guy who leases that land about the herbicides. He said 'Why sure little lady!" with a big cheesy grin and then 2 days later he sprayed anyway. However, this year he didn't spray herbicides and he left a wide span of wild vegetation between where he plowed and sprayed fertilizers and planted his crops and our 2 stretches of fence that borders his field, so I am HOPING he is being considerate. At least I will act like that is why he did that. Probably just left those areas to prevent erosion, but whatever. It works for me! As one of the locals sages here likes to to tell me, "Things here is the way they always has been, and there ain't no a'changin" how they is, don'tcha see?" And that is the truth. :) Have a good one whoever you do. ~Annie

I always think ma nature does it best - naturally combines purple, yellow and white. I just went out today and took some more photos, we've got tons of queen anne's lace, joe-pye weed, and the goldenrod is just starting. I'm fortunate, I don't have to do anything to have this beautiful show every summer and fall. Thanks Annie,You should see Teddy now - after years of being loved so much he has a bad "neck condition", no stuffing left there and his head lolls around like it snapped. Ah well, still loved, still cuddles up with him for sleep every night and he accompanies us on all vacations, can't sleep without him. Maybe later I'll put some new meadow photos in.

Our rain is unpredictable. Technically we are listed at 30" per year but........ That depends. We have been in that same drought you are probably in for the last several years but sometimes we get a lot so its hard to plan what to grow, its crazy making. This spring was real wet and I had some plants suffer. I'm on a slope with good drainage so that helps. The last few summers had straight endless weeks of daily 100+ temps with no rain almost all summer. We also have high humidity during periods in summer, it depends on what the weather decides to do to us, we are at its mercy in so many ways. I don't do hardly any watering here. Its survival of the fittest but I will relent when weeks have gone by on certain plants or if I am establishing something new. All the kinds of Miscanthus need supplemental water in summer here. The ones around here died in the last few years unless they were irrigated and many of them looked like crap from the heat. The Pennisetum grasses need a lot of watering or else they look bad. I avoid both of these thirsty grasses. Since we have been so dry in the last several years, it should give a good idea of what will do OK for you there on such little rain, but 5" is extreme, ouch! The muhlys all look great without any supplemental water, including the regal mist. I read that M. rigens thrives on drought. I believe it, mine grew fast in that dry heat and was as healthy looking as you could ask for, same for the Pine Muhly. The M. lindhemeiri gets much bigger with more water but did fine during the drought. These really vary in size a lot depending on conditions. I had one growing by the air conditioner drain and it was a monster in size while the ones growing dry were much smaller. In Texas where the drought was much worse, some of the muhly's went dormant and looked awful in 2012 but I think they came back OK from what I read on the Texas Forum. They seem to be programmed to withstand the drought. I know you would do very well with the Sacaton wrightii. I bought 4 of those improved huge sized ones for a 'hedge" that they sell at High Country Gardens and didn't like it. It grows very very fast but the leaves are sort of wide and it wasn't to my liking like the unimproved ones I grew from seeds and replaced it with. I also bought that Muhly lindheimerii/capillaris hybrid one called 'Flamingo'. Its gorgeous. As an isolated specimen that improved Sacaton might do well for you if you want a TRUE MONSTER Grass. The Ravenne grass seems to be made of cast iron. These cook along the highways and look fine, no watering. They are common along with Crepe Myrtle and Chaste Trees which all seem to be indestructible here. The grass stands real straight and very tall. We are so windy here, most of the trees trunks lean toward the north, but not the grass. I always consider the highway test as 100% reliable on drought hardiness. All of the native grasses you mentioned are also used a lot in that way. The Mexican Feather Grass is often planted with pink blooming hesperaloe and thats a nice drought hardy combination. The Switch Grasses are used too in mass plantings along the roads and seem to do fine with little water here. I think they will do well either wet or dry. I'm so jealous you got to go to Plants of the Southwest. I would love to visit the nursery sometime. I have two desert Four O'Clocks I started from seed I got from them last fall. I have tried the Feather Dalea seeds without luck four years now. I can get them to germinate but then they die. I have good luck with various penstemon, Russian Sage, Lantana, Blackfoot Daisy, Desert Marigolds, Salvia Greggii and Flame Acanthus but not Agastache. I see other people growing it but mine always die. I don't know why. I have lots (too many) of kinds of cactus and cold hardy agave but the cats don't seem to mind them. The Apache Plume gets real thick if you prune it back hard in spring. Its very ornamental, at least to me, but I have weird taste or at least I seem to be in a tiny minority when it comes to plant tastes. Other ones I have that I love are Mormon Tea and Winterfat, you probably have that growing wild there too. I like the looks of the silver nightshade a lot, maybe I should investigate it a bit more. I don't want invasives.

Good point about seed timing, when I have planted prairie seeds in the spring I usually had them at least in the freezer first or tried to stratify them myself first. I have planted seeds both spring and fall at my former house and some 'empty' land I still own. Where I am now I have a few times smothered patches of dirt with plywood or cardboard and then sown it in the fall with seeds I have saved from other areas of my property, and 2 that I bought (blue flax and purple coneflower.) We do have a LOT of native prairie and woodland plants here, and I assure you they mostly brought themselves here. The land was owned by my family for almost 50 years. I have seen photos from long ago and it was clearly a big cultivated field before my family moved in. If you leave land alone long enough, the native species come out as well as weeds. A combination of seed bank, wind, birds, and animals. I keep finding trilliums popping up here and there, and we have a few nice patches of False Solomon's seal. Those aren't prairie plants, but they are definitely native plants that came to call. We have lovely wild violets everywhere we mow. Besides some lovely types of goldenrod and both white and purple asters, we also have purple prairie clover, violet monarda, cinquefoil, milkweed, yarrow, wild strawberries, coreopsis, white and purplish fleabane, and several things I can't think of the name of right off. Introduced by me were the black-eyed susans and purple coneflower (it's great to give your mother plants and then buy her house later and have them there) and a tenant introduced wild geraniums. We also have some interesting grasses which I cannot name for you, side-oats grama (?) and foxtail are 2 I actually know the name of. I assure you most of the wild plants put themselves here. My family was always into organic gardening, which helped. Wild trees even grow, like wild plum, painful but great smelling this time of year, and blackhaw, which I have found is very rare in WI and only found in 2 counties. We also have many red currant, gooseberry, and high bush cranberry bushes all over, mainly planted by birds. So humans interfered once in a while, my father planted fruit trees all over, and we plant vegies and flowers here and there. Some areas were mowed at some times, mostly just paths, so nature has had a lot of time to do her work. We would mow more now if our mower worked. :-) A non-native specie that I now consider a prairie plant is mullein, which I love, as birds perch on it and eat the seeds. Anyway, what my point was supposed to be is that if given enough time and some native species, you will attract wildlife, and get more native species via them. So it is a matter of gardening by subtraction with occasional strategic additions. Dug, if you like, I can send you some black-eyed susan seeds, these are the tall wild kind, smaller flowers than the modern varieties, but more flowers per plant. In the prairie they are about 2 to 3 feet tall, in a watered garden they get up to 5 feet. They are originally from North Dakota prairie via hubby's great-grandmother, and passed around the family since. They spread themselves very nicely. Marcia