Skip, that's a lot of common milkweeds.! Why would the Solidago seeds sprout now? Did you do a hot water treatment? Do those ferns type plants just have foliage for most of the time and then send up that flower? Maybe they would look alright in shade. Do they need a lot of moisture like ferns, because if they do, why would they be popping up in your yard? Blueberries need very acidic soil. Nice pictures everyone, thanks!

One source I saw said a lot of Solidago species don't need any cold pretreatment or any other special treatment to germinate. From https://tomclothier.hort.net/page04.html

"Solidago altissima, caesia, canadensis, cutleri, gigantea, glomerata, graminifolia, juncea, missouriensis, multiradiata, nemoralis, pinetorum, puberula, remota, riddellii, rigida, roanesis, sempervirens, speciosa, sphacelata, uliginosa, and virgaurea, Sow at 20ºC (68ºF), germinates in less than two wks"

Others say they need cold moist treatment, so I'm wondering what will happen.

That fern is tiny, the stalk came up this week. I guess it doesn't need a lot of moisture because the soil is just average there.

As far as I know the underlying soil in my area is a very acidic. I haven't tested it personally but thats what the USDA says. You can do a search with your town or a nearby town and "Official Soil Series Descriptions" to find out about your soil.

ETA: Symphyotrichum laeve doesnt need any pretreatment either, going to direct sow my remaining seeds later.

I'll sow some of my caesia, odorata and flexicaulis seeds and see if I can get a headstart then. I was looking at the goldenrods that Prairie Moon carries. There are a couple xeric species that I want to grow, in spots where I don't want to water. I might be growing 5 or 6 Solidago species if all the seeds germinate. Right now I want the flexicaulis more than the rest. I spent all day yesterday watering and then it rained all night. I was fertilizing too. The Laportea canadensis is flowering. They look unusual. The female flowers are lower on the plant and the male flowers are higher. At least that species is beginning to colonize. The park is full of snow berries, Symphoricapos, but I have yet to see one with flowers or seeds. They sucker the, which is good. Going to collect more Staphylea and Ptelea seeds. All of the Bidens species are annuals. It's amazing how fast they get so big. I like the B. cernua because it has connate, sessile leaves with red veins and then the awesome lemon yellow flowers. The other 2 species to collect seeds for are B. polylepis, and B. aristosa. They call one of them swamp beggersticks, but I see them in normal mesic soil all the time. I thought this white flowered plant in the front yard was the foot tall upland white goldenrod, Solidago ptarmicoides, but the flower buds aren't round like the internet pictures, they look more like wild lettuce flower buds. Skip, did you ever find out what was eating your pipelines a while back? Damn autocorrect! lol

The place I bought the flexicaulis seeds said cold stratify 8 weeks. I think I have a bidens growing under that Norway spruce but it didnt show up until recently and with all the shade didnt grow much or flower either. Still dont know what ate the pipevine. Yesterday I finally put in bamboo stakes next to them for them to climb, and I still have to plant the rest of them. A couple places, toadshade and wild ridge, carry a cool one local to the east coast, Solidago puberula, one for thin infertile soil.

I didn't think to include any cabbage family Brassica plants anywhere. I had a native one, winter sown that didn't germinate. It was supposed to be a great host plant. There are some truly rare white butterflies native here, that feed on those plants too. I've had a couple tomato plants in pots, but they haven't produced any tomatoes yet. I'll never try them in pots again. Skip, how are those veggies you planted doing? I thought you got them in kind of late. I remember once on the victory garden, Roger, the organic guy said he mulched his blueberries with sawdust, because it would be acidic when it broke down. My swamp milkweeds are in really bad shape and there were some Monarch cats on them about to run out of food, so I put them all on other lush milkweeds. There's still plenty of milkweed to go around. There's something about swamp milkweeds. The yellow aphids attack them all way more than the others. I freaked when I looked at the 2 little swamp seedlings that were eaten down to sticks and aphids were lined up and down their stems. On the old victory garden, Roger had the coolest compost system. It was like an enclosure the size of a stagecoach. At the bottom were screens. The thing could could handle having dead plants added to it for years, or forever maybe. And over time as it broke down the fine material, ready to use, would fall thru the screen and accumulate. Awesome! Think of alllll the work that saves, and time.

I dont know if the corn, beans and squash are going to finish in time. The tomatos are growing gangbusters, theyre kind of a pain because they need more supports. One corn stalk is tassling, the squash is flowering too. No flowers on the beans yet but I added stakes on friday and theyre climbing them fast. Not the most recent pictures, mind you, they've grown even more

oh man, please ignore all the weeds. Cant bring myself to spend a bunch of money on grass seed.

It’s looking good! Hope you will get to harvest some. Jay are you sure you have enough milkweed? I have eggs and caterpillars on every one. Still egg laying going on. With 2 month to go, I am kind of worried. If more Tussock moth caterpillars show up, I am doomed. Speaking of cabbage, there isn’t a single Cabbage White to be seen. Really odd.

Skip-my Button Bush is right in the middle of the well watered garden area. I'm thinking of digging it out and putting it somewhere else out of the way as it is not that showy, and taking up space for what is.

Jay-thanks for the id on the Panicum, but I'm pretty sure it is not a cultivar, just looks like one. I grabbed some seeds, but It's maybe too early yet. I did find some larger clumps of Panicum too but they are not reddish color. Milkweed seed not viable yet either. Going to get another 1 1/2 inches of rain today. I'm seeing Monarchs but never saw a cat this year at all. Up here, this far north, we must have a thousand Milkweed plants for every Monarch that comes by. They can pick and choose at will.

Basically, I read the stories behind most of these grass cultivars, and they usually always come from a wild colony someone chanced in the wild, so in essence it's something genetic that can turn up under the right conditions in a species like Panicum virgatum. Some guy from Maine had a Eurybia divaricata that had a lot of reddish coloring in the stems and leaves. I thought he had a rare mutation until I watched a Monty Don video and saw him planting some that had the same reddish color. Man, it's still raining. Maybe I got rid of my button bush because it wasn't looking nice when it wasn't in bloom either lol. Now I want it bad! There's been a lot of cabbage whites. There was a little clone volunteer. They lay eggs on those too. I think the horseradish is finally eradicated. Pretty sure I have more than enough milkweeds. It's only in the past couple years that I've noticed a lot of Monarch cats. Maybe you'll start getting more up there Dandy. It's looking like there are a lot of Monarchs around, even all the milkweeds at the park are eaten down to sticks. Skip, that looks like poison ivy by your corn. It's all over my yard. I just leave it, but I won't let it grow up trees. I think it's hilarious how some people feel about it. There's a lot of it by the shed that I need to clear. I'll be wearing gloves for sure then. Squash blossoms are edible. You can stir fry them or batter them and fry them or make tempura.

Well, I am really not sure there will be enough. Between some of them looking bad with rust and the Monarchs showing up a month early and adding another generation, no sprig is left untouched.

Wow Iris, I wish I could send you some milkweeds. You must really be swamped. Your goldenrod has smooth leaves. That might make it easier to ID. I just saw some zig zag goldenrod at the park. It had to be, because the stems were zig zag. There was another nice looking new one there too. One of my Agrimony plants and all my Elephantopus are getting flower buds. I was not expecting them to bloom the 1st year from seed. All the very late blooming things are starting to flower now. All year I've been wondering what goes along with that foliage.

Skip, that plant by the corn might be a Rubus too?

I didn't have my phone, but the Asclepias latifolia's leaves are getting wider. They are so cool looking.

I am still a bit disappointed in my latifolia. 3rd year and not a single flower bud in sight. Of course now they are being eaten, too. I just thought earlier that our subdivision of fifty houses has at last 300 acres. There are just 4 houses I have seen milkweed. This includes the small patch of butterfly weed my next door neighbor has. So where would they go if not my yard?

If there are still a lot of eggs and babies they might finish off all mine. There hasn't been many cats at the other place, but a couple of my variegata seedlings were eaten pretty good. I went to look at the milkweeds at the park down the street, and more of them are eaten this year. They mowed a lot more of the wildflowers and milkweeds, so asked a worker there why that was, and he said that land is owned by a farmer who leases it to the city, and he wants hay now. That is so ridiculous! That's my town for you. So I guess I need to find out who this farmer is and try to reach him. Why would you feed cows a bunch of milkweeds? I do really want to talk to who'd in charge there. They should start selling milkweeds in the produce section.

Well, I was whining to Javi earlier. The owner of the empty lot behind me cut everything down yesterday. In two weeks it would have been so beautiful with all the goldenrods. He used the “big guns”, so all the little trees coming up are history, too. Man, I wish I could get my hands on these 13 acres. He has a huge house across the street from it on a hill, so he keeps it for his view I suppose.

That bugs me when they are just empty lots. Why don't they stop mowing and cutting and help the environment instead? And a lot of people think goldenrods cause hay fever.

Everybody has a big lawn, its going to be the bain of us. They keep clear cutting woodlands to build adult active communities and mixed condo/retail developements. Theres going to be no permeable ground left. Now, where do I sign up to get my environmental protection conspiracy bucks?

Jay the 3-leaved plant by the corn is the Purple Kingsessing Bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, native to mesoamerica. Its a dry bean. It needs 70-90 days, I estimate about 45 days left until frost.

There is some disease or nutrient dificiency afflicting it, but its still growing fast.

Iris, I looked at every Solidago species, and I narrowed it down to 5 species that might be yours. S. nemoralis, sphacelata, roanensis, petiolaris, and pulchra. There are so many species it's hard to tell them apart. There is also one species with white petals called S. bicolor that looks similar to yours. That's a nice species. I guess for genera like this, with a lot of species, a couple people over at name that plant, (Carol and jekeesl) might be better help than me. I'm still looking at the cudweeds.

Thanks, Jay! I will look them up! I like that it is not so tall. Seems to reseed a lot. There were 2 plants in that area last year, now there are about 15. But they come out easily. None of the 3 feet root business. It’s raining!

Great! Hope you get a good soak. The sun's out here. I have now my lawn. There are a lot of species growing in it now. I grew a fern leaved Corydalis in the front years ago and they fizzled out, and now, years later, some seedlings are coming up in the front lawn. Everything will look nice after the rain.

Iris, did you ever see any bugs on your Apios flowers? Every time I looked, there were no bugs. I really want seeds and I don't know if they are being pollinated. I just think it's strange because bees are usually all over bean flowers, and these are native, so they should be even more attractive to the bees. Bees usually love all legume flowers.

I have seen a few tiny bees and flies around it. Not that many though.

Iris, do you have any bean pods on your Apios vines?

Jay, love how colorful it is! Your Zinnias and Mexican sunflowers are looking so good! Didn’t really check the Apios for seedpots. That’s your Amorpha Fruticosa with the chrysalis, right? I planted mine literally in the middle of nowhere since I have read they are suckering a lot. Did I get this wrong?

I read that they can spread to form colonies, but I've never heard anyone complain about them being hard to control. I'm not worried about them spreading.

Looks good Jay. Did you grow any Panicum oligosanthes? My Tridens flavus is flowering and its much larger with wider leaves than the one in your picture, so maybe that is purple love grass. You got some new stuff from the wintersowing extravaganza. What happened with all the empty bins, are they sitting with seeds and soil somewhere or did you dump them?

No panicum germinated. I had purple love grass just a couple years ago, so it looks familiar. The bins are made out of biodegradable plastic I think. I emptied them, and threw them all away. I'm doing the winter sowing in more durable nursery pots. There are two bins with soil left. They have the ginseng and A. serpentaria seeds and need double dormancy. I messed up and accidentally dumped the bin with the lilium michiganense seeds. There are 8 bigger clearer bins that I can still use too, and I have several 4" pots. I moved the caterpillar off the seedling and onto a syriaca. I moved my last surviving ovalifolia into more sun. The other one got eaten a couple days ago. Did some weeding, mostly morning glories. Planted an Amsonia hubrichtii plant. It's only native to Arkansas and Oklahoma, it's not native for me or in Minnesota. I had to go look at something that wasn't mowed and saw the most beautiful goldenrod. I'm pretty sure it was S. gigantea.
This plant was over 6' tall.

Iris, It looks real close to the S. nemoralis that grows up here, but in dry soil, and doesn't want to rule the world like the others.

I don't have any Cats bu t the neighbor lady two lots down has many , but I think she was just showing off to me. My Liatris ligulistylis is blooming, getting ready for the big migration. This has to be the MUST HAVE plant for Monarch lovers, at least here in the central flyway. The Milkweed fanatics miss the point because milkweed is not in bloom during fall migration. I can't got to Mexico without eating.

Today I picked seeds off the Penstemon grandiflora that was growing in a ditch this summer. And there's some really nice Butterfly Weed growing by the railroad track that is ready to pop. I also found a nice grove of Mianthemum stellata with beautiful berries that will be ready to pick in a week or two. I'm making a real concerted effort this year to collect a lot more wild species, maybe I can sell them over winter as a hobby

Jay-is that white plant New Jersey Tea? I have already begun cold striating the Lillium michiganense, so hopefully they can germinate over this coming winter..

Dandy, you are so right about providing the nectar. The Frostweeds are taking over my world, but they are so busy in late Fall, I didn’t have the heart to thin them out now. I was also wondering about the white plant. Just waiting for Jay to apply some labels.

Speaking of Monarch cats, there are more than a dozen on my fasicularis. With leaves this small, this is not going to work. Back to moving them around.

Those pictures are awesome Jay. The first plant is goldenrod? I just refilled an empty tray with bagged soil and sowed 15 cells purple love grass, 8 slender wood oats, 7 blue stem goldenrod, and 8 smooth blue aster. Stuck it outside in the cold frame. They dont need any stratification so lets hope they germinate and I get around 45 days of growth before I HAVE to plant them. Kind of bummed I see my only remaining Anaphalis seedling is all shriveled up. No explanation, the soil doesnt feel too wet or too dry.

Sorry I messed up the picture order earlier and didn't label. I went back and fixed it. I've edited and messed up 20 times now so that's all. lol

I know I should post to Name that Plant (or whatever that forum's called), but you guys are usually good at this....my stuff is never very exotic or rare. Here's that same plant I posted last week about the cotyledon:

Are we still thinking morning glory? Thanks!

This could happen if you don't deadhead your morning glories, and deadheading morning glories is a royal PITA! But so is pulling quadrillions of them! lol

Generally yes, morning glory. Which species? Dont know

I went back to check the goldenrod for seed again. I think now it could be Solidago odora based on the anise smell in the air, although I couldn't detect the smell on the leaf itself.

Whatcha think?

It looks nice. I'll look closer at it later. I still have odora seeds and was planning on round 2. Yep, I want that anise smell. A lot of these species are native over a wide area, so if they are native to Illinois, they will usually have something on Illinois wildflowers about it. In their articles at the bottom in the comments, they usually give ways to identy the species and how to distinguish it from similar species. It's helpful with getting ID's. I use them for name that plant. There are so many goldenrods and they still all look pretty much the same to me. I want to get better at IDing them. What's the white flower by the path? Are those rhodis? Sometimes the middles of big rhodies get hollowed out and then people can use them like for secret rooms. A bunch of us were partying inside a big rhodie at the Kentucky derby. lol

Those are young hickory trees Carya tomentosa and another species, pignut I think, there are a lot of them there. I put the white flowers on NTP, Eupatorium altissimum. Theres also Eupatorium hyssopifolium in there.

Thanks for confirming, guys! I'm gonna yank!

Jay: MW is doing fine -- has flowered and growth has slowed. Would like it to get pollinated, so I stuck it next to one of the high-traffic HBs (though, cannot remember if this is the type of MW that needs another of the same type of MW in the vicinity to be pollinated). I did deadhead my tithonia this year, but I'm not sure if that was a good idea. I noticed that as I deadheaded just the blossom (and not all the way down to the main stem, the remaining leaves turned ugly brown very quickly. I deadheaded the zinnia once; but frankly it's doing so well, I really don't know if my intervention had any affect. "They" say it's a good idea to deadhead -- maybe that's for those who need/love neat and tidy. Sometimes, it's just too hot for neat and tidy...more like water-and-get-back-inside!

PS Does your pink tweedia attracts flutters and hummers? There are so many wonderful plants out there, I need to control myself!

So Javi, did you yank? I have spend two hours today on morning glory and cypress vine. Dead heading sounds good in theory. If someone can give me a lift up there?

I never knew there are so many different goldenrods and bonesets. Should look further into this. I really like boneset. I planted the common one, and Eupatorium linearifolium showed up last year (identified in Name that Plant). Had some really cute company today. Guess he likes sweaty hands :)

Oh, I yanked, Iris! You guys will be jealous, but it took me all of 10 seconds. :)

Seems to me my pictures didn’t post. Or don’t show for me. The one with cypress vine was one with it tangled at the top of the palm. This palm is as high as the roof, so yeah. Not going to dead head up there. Ten seconds, eh? Yep. I am jealous.

Hmm, your pictures showed up for me, Iris. Yikes, I see the little red blooms all the way up there. If you just nip it at ground level, won't everything going upward die naturally?

That’s what I am doing for the most part. I do like to have one or two growing up there. The hummingbirds and sulphurs really love them. But with no way to dead head, there will be hundreds more. Here is what my previous post looks like for me. Except I probably won’t know if I posted the picture. Jeez. I thought things are fixed. You must be a VIP to see them.

Your post appears fine to me:

Iris, can you see these pictures?

No pictures. Let’s see if Dandy sees them. Since it seems we are the outcasts.

Well, this thread lasted a lot longer anyways.

I STARTED A NEW THREAD. PLEASE GO OVER THERE, thanks.

Wait, but I see a picture of grass now! Maybe it was one of the lastest hiccups. Like pictures shrinking.

I'll try to only post my own pics from now on. Sorry!