thank you george! makes me wish i timed this better! i also wondered about canada and michigan lilly. but, i am sure the foliage is different. nwo that i look, i think the petals were much more curved than the canada. but, this looks very similar in a diff color: http://www.nearctica.com/flowers/liliace/Lcanad.htm i am so confused. i am also posting this michigan lily for future reference! http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/mich_lilyx.htm definitely not wood lily thanks judy! i thought so. :)

Danny, I finally had some time to sit and read your article and view the photos. I thought it was well written and the photos are great. Really? Plants shading out the bermuda? I would be afraid the bermuda would choke out plants but thinking about it, I have often seen thug weeds choke it out and overcome it in peoples lawns to their chagrin, the park up the street is being overcome by the dreaded Dallis Grass replacing bermuda so it does make sense that some good tough prairie grasses could do serious battle against it. I always wonder if among all those weed seeds you would bring up by tilling would also contain some long dormant treasures. Maybe setting small plants in your meadow lodged a few desirable seeds up to the surface and they finally germinated? Interestingly, I have had several volunteers of prairie clover and purple wine cups but nature has yet to drop so many surprises from the sky as you reported. I did find some variations like an unusual butterscotch colored Mexican hat volunteered this year when all I have ever planted was the deep burgundy kind and some nearly solid red plains coreopsis from.....somewhere? Only the very edges of the flowers showed any yellow. I love the surprises. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed seeing the pictures and reading the article.

I don't get bent out of shape concerning what people plant in residential gardens & I don't crusade the idea of going native to anyone who will listen. I figure if I make my own yard look good with natives, thats the best way to sell the idea but I'm not out to change the world. If someone asks, I'll answer. I'm not an average homeowner. I like the prairie and we removed the lawn and went that direction but then I keep in mind the perspective that I like gardening more than most who live around here. I'm not a sports fan which also places me in another minority, I'd rather be outside gardening during the game or when the Thunder plays. The toothpaste is out of the tube concerning our problem invasive species such as honeysuckle, Bradford Pear & privet. The popularity of the non-invasive plants you mentioned such as day lily, roses and hosta and several other popular landscape plants we could list is not the problem when you consider the amount of land covered in concrete and high maintenance lawns. I consider lawns to be a much more serious concern than whether people prefer native as opposed to conventional garden plants. Water waste is one of my biggest bug-a-boo's with sprinkler systems becoming very common, widespread chemical use on lawns that runs down the street into streams and air pollution. I find myself doing the math of what I see going on here and know is going on elsewhere. There are strict restrictions on ranchers and farmers, officials regularly check to see if they are in compliance while homeowners are free to spray their lawns with abandon. This makes no sense. I don't like seeing the city expand and watching builders scrape off the native prairie and then replace it with bermuda lawn grass and formal landscaping along with regular mowing, spraying and sprinkler systems. Fire suppression is a bigger cause of problems than introduced plants where I live. Eastern Red Cedar is out of control and is taking over thousands of acres of prairie at alarming rates inevitably creating deciduous forests of both native and non-native woody plants. In my opinion, it makes no difference whether they are native trees & underbrush or not at this point. Why should it? That land cannot be restored back to prairie, habitat is lost forever and it seems there is no stopping this aggressive transformation, no end in sight. When its dry, these infested places turn into infernos that explode. After the fire is finally out, the trees are what come back, not the grasses. Its a problem of balance and funds. Fracking is a major concern. We have earthquakes here all the time now, I heard we have more than California or anywhere else in the world right now. I also worry about the fact that we are depleting the aquifer faster than it can replenish itself with large scale farm irrigation. We have a vote coming up concerning something called 'Right to Farm'. Its about halting regulations on farming practices. I'm not sure what its all about since I haven't had time to look into it but it sounds ominous. Has anyone heard of this?

I was shocked to see garlic mustard flowering that was 1 inch tall. It wouldn't take long for them to choke out these toothworts. I pulled up or tried to pull up every bush honeysuckle and I got all the GM, but a couple broke off at the root, I really that, because you know it will be back!. What evil plants! FOR DOUG!