Greg, I have plenty of blazing star! Send me a SASBE and I'll send it to you! Email me if you're interested. -B

Hello, I would love of yours-;; the honeysuckle passiflora inncense cuttings I first smelled honey suckle at my brothers in cali. and my passiflora did not come up, don't know why, this is only my second year gardening, I have;;;; gaillardia-pulchella purple cone flower little joe pye weed clarkia elegance malva zebrina helenium moerheim beauty yellow moon bean coreopsis allium christophii caryopteris bush- blue beard maltese cross-red redbeckia- green eyes email me if you would like to trade, I love vines we have a bare deck,ha. pumkingal-Lisa

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

wiscomitom, around here there is not a lot of appreciation for the native landscape. What I mean is a section or area of grassland prairie is usually viewed as having 'nothing out there'. Its not a visually dramatic landscape like forest, mountains etc --- what people perceive as a beautiful view. When the city develops they build the structure, put in concrete roads, parking lot and such but they also dig out or kill off the surrounding native grasses such as big bluestem, little bluestem, sideoats grama etc along with various types of milkweed, Maximillian sunflower and other types of sunflowers along with various other native species which are actually attractive and offer nice seasonal changes. Instead of leaving that, they square the remainder of the area off into bermuda grass which is then regularly sprayed with chemicals and mowed which ends up as a boring square of deep green sitting in the prairie. I'm sure you are familiar with what I'm talking about. I'm not just referring to housing additions, its large places like tech schools and business where it would be less expensive and actually more attractive left as original prairie. You'd think maintenance cost would factor in even if they can't appreciate the prairie. I'm close to downtown and have chosen to bring the prairie into the city. A complete opposite view but I am in a very teeny tiny minority of homeowners who is doing anything like that here (I only know of 3 others in the entire city). Thankfully its coming around and the state buildings, many street medians, businesses and the downtown area is being replanted in native grasses used as decorative bedding plants, all professionally planned out and arranged. It looks rather sophisticated and modern actually, sort of cutting edge in fact.