Thanks Dawn for posting your mw being up. I would be almost positive that it is indeed viridis. You are correct that the mw tends to come up faster by the edge of the road more than likely due to the warmth of the pavement, and tendency to hold water. Congrats upon seeing your 1st Monarch!!! Even if it looked pretty fresh, it was still your 1st sighting, and they are always the most special. Probably a Houston migrant looking to leave some eggs. I will post your sightings. I always look forward to your reports. They are appreciated. :) How wonderful to hear that you got some much needed rain. I know that you were really dry, and it will make a big difference. Okiegardener, good to hear from you. Like Randy said, it is probably too late to think about planting some native mw seeds in April. Alot of them them require cold stratification. But, tropical mw does very well in Ok. Occassionally, it will reseed for me in warmer winters, but I have never had it come back from the roots in Okla. I have been able to overwinter some in pots in the garage. The Monarchs do tend to prefer it in laying their eggs. What part of Okla. do you live? You may have some luck finding the A. tuberosa in some nurseries. It is perennial, and comes back every year. The blooms are gorgeous, and really attracts the butterflies, but does not do well in the heat. The A. incarnata (Swamp mw) does well in a lower wetter area with morning sun in central Ok. Sometimes you can find it in nurseries. I would highly second Randy's recommendation in trying to make one of Marilyn's plant shows from Wildthings Nursery. She is a dear friend, very knowledgeable about natives and butterflies, and has quite the green thumb. She carries alot of hard to find butterfly host plants that she grows from seed or propagation. E-mail her, and perhaps you can work something out. Good luck with your butterfly garden! Randy,hope things are going well for you and your daughter. Are you about to get caught up on your ice storm mess? I'm sure that your daughter is continuing to win gymnast awards. Thanks for checking on your mw. :) Hope that the Monarchs stay put. Forecast of high of 49 on Friday, with temps down to 30's on Saturday with possible SNOW???? Oh,no. Keep in touch!

OJ...no slumber required... I did say it this a.m. before I went to sleep. And here I am up again only 4 hrs later. Rats. But I did manage to sign up for my first vaccine anyway....so that's good. DH is still sleeping.... Oh...he woke up and we said it together.

Beautiful and sunny today. Light breeze and 62*, though it was a chilly 64* in the house when we got up and started moving around. First day we turned on the central heating system. A while ago someone asked about an ID for one of the plants in a mixed planting I shared an image of. It's the sort of chartreuse plant with the little balls (seed pods) to the left of the frog. Strangely, the last time I used that bedding plant, Talinum paniculatum, commonly - jewels of Opar, in a mixed planting was in '08, yet, a couple of days after the inquiry I spied a volunteer in the front garden. It had to have been from 2008 because it was under a post I put in the garden to elevate mixed plantings. The tall, multi-stemmed plant in the middle and growing straight up is an upright form of oregano - I forget the species and cultivar. I like the plant and thought it would be cool as part of a Kusamono planting I'd put together spring '23, so I dug it up and potted it. This was just a few weeks ago, and I was hoping there would be time enough for it to set seed. It did set seed, and I've been clipping the pods off as they mature: If you look closely at the peduncle (flower stalk) you can see what looks like a swelling but is really another cluster of flower buds with stalks emerging. Inside the cup formed by the leaves, there are a number of additional stems forming, The plant is a perennial, though not hardy where I live (hardy to USDA z9a and above), but I should have no trouble over-wintering under lights. It is a perennial/ succulent, in case anyone is interested in growing it. They come easy from seed and take 1-2 wks to germinate. Other images taken this AM: Epimedium sulphureum ^^^ akaBarrenwort Athyrium filix-femina 'Rotstiel Grandiceps' ^^^ aka crested lady fern The pots the 2 plants immediately above are planted in soup bowls from Walmart with holes drilled in the bottom. Juniperus chinensis 'Shimpaku', pruned, wired and seriously thinned yesterday. Al

What interesting stories and remininices. Hope you won't feel even a tad stupid, roxsol - you've been learning and developing over the years, and becoming a better equipped member of this worldwide community. I've often said that it's a poor day in which one doesn't learn something! I think that Covid has given us some object lessons in the issue of us all being in this together. We'll need to follow that path much more extensively as we deal with this planet-wide climate warning crisis. Hope you all have a lovely and memorable May. ole joyfuelled