Whoa Josh!!! Gee, thanks for all the neat "links" you posted for me!! I was in reading last night for quite a length of time, & there is much info on alot of this stuff! Now, I'm not sure if Missouri's type of foliage & flowers are similar to ours here in Idaho, as I think they might "differ" a bit... mostly due to our Desert climate right in our area. The MOBOT Herbarium Instruction page was a "mind-blower," as it was some really in-depth reading, and I could go for hours on that one! Wow! I was really glad to hear you know what "Prickly-Pear" Cactus' are, because they grow wild here, by the "scads," and alot of folks use them in their rock gardens & such. When roaming or hiking in the mountains or Desert areas around here, you really have to watch where you're stepping, because of the large groups of them that grow everywhere! I've even seen them growing right out of the tops of lava rocks around here... with no soil!!! Too bad I can't figure out a way to get the beautiful blossoms off of them to "press & dry!" (... that would be a real fiasco` though, because of how sharp they are!) You had mentioned the "Yucca" Plant. That is one I am not very familiar with. I did try to grow some "Yucca" at one time out here, but as usual, I had no luck. It is just too dry on our Ranch here. I will have to ask around & see if folks grow any Yucca around here. I have not navigated around on the Site much here yet, since I have been a Member, so haven't went into the "Native forum" yet... but will do that. Thanks. You are right when you stated that right now, we should have a vast array of tiny flowers & things growing out in the Desert here on our Ranch. Always in the Spring time here in our area, everything of Nature is just loaded with many unusual Spring flowers & foliage. I am hoping to get out and pick some wild "Indian Paint Brush" to press & dry, that's for sure! This was something I wanted to do over the Easter week-end, but our weather was really stormy with alot of high gusts of Wind,... so I couldn't get out to do that. I am like you Josh... not only do I like to attempt to press & dry "flowers," but I also like the foliage... alot of it, & am always so interested in dried "leaves" and such. "Moss" fascinates me too!! I was reading on some of the previous "links" you gave to me on various plants, & it was telling how to "skeletonize" leaves & such... That was quite interesting to me! (maybe something I'll have to try sometime, but realize it's also difficult to do.) As far as me "trading" any plants from your area, I would be willing just to send you some of my Western "sage" foliage from out here... because that's all it is, is "leaves," but I would have to "press & dry" some first. Let me know what you think? Thank you for responding & Posting Josh.. it's always good to hear from you, & I will be in reading more of the info in the "links" you sent to me as well. Take care, & I will anticipate hearing from you again~ Warmest regards, ~ IndianPaintBrush ~

jennyinmn if you have any questions please post. We all want to help you have satisfactory results with your prairie planting. You might want to investigate the following ideas: If you keep smothering your vegetation over winter you can pull off the cover come early spring and allow whatever weeds are still active to present, then you can follow up with an application of roundup which is often a necessary evil to speed up the prep stage. Wait about a week after applying the herbacide to see if it needs an additional treatment, then treat again. Then, if you Winter-Sowed your transplants (lots of info about Winter-Sowing on this forum), you'll be ready for planting and watching your prairie emerge. There will be lots of weeding the first year, but having killed off the vegetation for a full year prior, will have gone a long way to keeping your planting relatively weed free. If you still want to direct sow your seed, it might be better to keep smothering until fall 2011 (this will give more time for killing off weeds and the sod will have broken down more), then pull off the plastic and again check for weed growth same as above. Treat with herbicide if needed. Then you can throw your seed down late fall/winter 2011 to emerge the following spring 2012. In the meantime, keep your seeds fresh in the fridge.

Of course, being a good steward of our reasources, such as by planting grasses that need less water and fertilzer is good. But, if global warming is happening and threatening to push us in to a whole different kind of weather epoch, I sure wouldn't have any problem growing a lighter shade of grass to to try to help mother nature balance out the higher temps that may be resulting from all the greenhouse gasses our industrial age has been pumping in to the atmosphere. While day to day temps, even a whole season can't be taken as indicators of changes in world wide changes, I was working outside yesterday and had to come in and put on a short sleeved shirt because it was so hot. An unheard of thing in 30 years of living in Amarillo, Texas. Also, when things like sheet ice at the poles start disapperaing, as we can see and measure, it becomes a little more difficult to stick our heads in the sand and say nothing is happening. Now, I agree we may not know for sure, sure, that man is "causing" it. It could be part of mother nature's big long term cycles. But, even then, its probably best for us to do what we can to balance the climate out, say with little things that might add up, like more reflective grasses growing in millions of yards around the country. Science tells us it is a fact that "nature" led to periods of weather that had high temps and mega-droughts in the past. Weather patterns that were non-man made that helped kill off a majority of species in the past. Helping mother nature keep things balanced, regardless of the cause, might be a pretty wise investment for us to make in our own well being.

Are you looking for evergreen or one that's bare part of the year? That's the BIG first choice. Cooking in the afternoon heat can be tough. - Lacey Oaks are EXTREMELY hard to find in larger landscape sizes in our area (Austin/SA) They're just not that well known and are SLOW. Larger specimens are usually only available from wholesale places. Here's a picture of some I looked at about an hour south of SA. Unfortunately I didn't have room for the Lacey on my trailer. These are 24in boxes. I opted for the even harder to find Canby Oak in 24in box. 24in Box Lacey Oak Nearly all the local nursery Lacey Oaks (not many) looked terrible. I may head back to get that Lacey next spring. Mexican, Bigtooth or Caddo Maples are all options but good luck finding any of those locally. I ordered all of mine and none bigger than 5g size. Bigtooth and Caddo are SLOW. Mexican Sugar is faster. Have you considered the Monterrey Oak (Q. polymorpha)? It's becoming common down here and seems to do very well. It's one of the faster growing oaks I've seen.