Seeds I am looking for: Smooth Purple Coneflower Echinacea laevigata Wavyleaf Purple Coneflower Echinacea simulata Upright Prairie Coneflower Ratibida columnifera Pinnate Prairie ConeflowerRatibida pinnata Green Prairie ConeflowerRatibida tagetes Orange Coneflower Rudbeckia fulgida Blackeyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta Cutleaf coneflowerRudbeckia laciniata Browneyed Susan Rudbeckia triloba Mexican Prickly Poppy Argemone mexicana California Poppy Eschscholzia californica Desert Poppy Eschscholzia glyptosperma

I think it sounds like a worthy experiment. I have never had this plant, but I thought I would chime in just to get things going on this. The native Mexican hats around here are much shorter, but they are still kind of floppy guys. I think the general rule is that if you do early summer pruning, then the plants will bloom a little later than they would if they weren't pruned. Also, there probably isn't guarantee that still wouldn't need to be staked.

Fantastic list of seeds! I think it is just great that you have focused your life on nature at such a young age. I too would love to have 10 (maybe 5) acres someday to plant a wonderland of natives plants, and am already doing that on 1.25 acres. Difference is, my interest didn't come into sharp focus until age 45. :) There are quite a few seeds on this list I am interested in, and I checked your want list and I have a few on that list. Maybe we can do a trade this fall? Just a note - on your want list is Cynanchum louiseae - this is an extremely invasive non-native vine that is becoming a serious problem in the Northeast US. And it has the additional problem that Monarch butterflies will "sense" it is in the Milkweed family, lay eggs on it, and then it will kill the caterpillars because it is toxic to Monarch larvae.

Woodstea, I have some LBS that tall too. I got seeds from the plants at the History Center (real tall ones), they are the locally native ones I call 'The Okies'. Actually they vary in height but a few come up to my chin easily and are taller than my Switch Grasses. I find that once the seeds get really fuzzy and the stalks dryer as the season moves well into very late fall (meaning December), they are much more upright and they turn a dark reddish color. In late summer on the stalks where the seeds (which are beefier than the smaller types) are forming they look completely different than the stems on the 'store-bought' named types of LBS ---- they are very heavy at the beginning which tends to weigh down the stems. I let the grasses fill in this year so some little imperfection is not noticeable because its more of a whole rather than a matter of each part, when a plant leans over or a LBS grass is less than vertical its not anything that stands out like when I had a more formal situation. Below is the hell strip where theres lots of 'Okies' in various states of uprightness and a shot from my view when I was standing in the neighbors yard: This is a grouping of Okies way up at the highest and driest part of the HS on the far west end. They are all flopped but come later on, they will be stiff and a lot more upright. They were gorgeous light blue all summer and upright, then they form those very heavy seed stalks which turn deep red and finally get stiff. The top picture was shot in September--- a bit of a mess isn't it? The photo below it shows the stalks as they are turning (buts seeds still not appearing) in October. The named types I got from SRG are all covered in fuzzy seeds by late September. Mara---I have solid yellow R. columnifera and the mahogany/yellow Mexican Hat types too. Its when you have both that you get those interesting color mixes. Oddly the butterscotch one (yellow with light orange markings) is not as robust as the other plants nor as heavy blooming. Here's a Mexican Hat type that volunteered up front (one plant), I love them in the grasses. Here's a shot I took last year in mid December, its in the courtyard, they start blooming early and bloom until it freezes. Can't ask for more than that.