Restless about natives.

I don’t know anything about thistles, but this is a fantastic picture with the blue sky!

Is that New Jersey Tea maybe?

I wish my New Jersey Tea would bloom again, but I just collected seeds and it looks like it's done for the year. I thought about transplanting my 1 bush, but I read that they don't do well when transplanted. There's a sucker growing alongside mine. The white flowers were either Ageratina or Eupatorium. They are everywhere with goldenrods. It's nice other colors.

Iris, there are 14 species of native Mimosas in Texas, and I think they are all sensitive.

Do you know how to tell when the Anaphalis seeds are ready to pick? It says pick when the flowers fade, does that mean the yellow parts?

Anaphalis have male and female flowers on separate plants. I think the flower bracts stay white after the flower dies. I doubt their seeds are ready yet. You can just check the seedheads every week to see when the seeds are ready. I think the seeds are tiny from what I remember. I haven't seen this plant at any of the preserves. This link tells how to tell male and female flowers apart.

https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/pearly-everlasting.

The chrysalises show up in the weirdest places, don’t they? I guess I will have to wait until next year for Fruticosa to bloom. As for the Texas something, I think I got it from Almost Eden. Might have to look up my previous orders. Might take a while since I can’t remember how long it has been there. The orange morning glories are by now trying to take over the passion vines. Wonder what kind they are. Scarlet or Noah? Doesn’t really matter I guess. It’s not like I am saying “Up in the weed bucket you go, Noah!”

They are kind of pretty.

Thanks for the link Jay, looks like I will have to be more patient. That Amorpha looks like it's settled in nicely.

The morning glory IS pretty, but I really wouldnt want any more uncontrollable vines around. The virginia creeper is becoming a bit of a nuisance around my deck.

I have a lot of Virginia creeper, too. Spent 6 hours dragging the water hose around today (it was also 97 degrees). House sitting for the neighbors for the next ten days with no rain in sight, so there will be a lot of that.

Beautiful, Skip -- name of the plant, please?

Eutrochium fistulosum Hollow stem joe pye weed. Can get much larger with a more saturated color near water with a lot of sun, but stays well behaved with part sun and just rain.

Hmmm...someone in TX just sent me Joe Pye Weed seeds, but I don't know if it's the hollow stem variety. Can't wait to find a spot for them next year. Iris warned they can be water hogs, so perhaps a spot by the hose. :)

I think I killed another one :(. Weeds are growing very well though. There are several of these. About knee high.

watching the neighbors house, there are a lot of these plants. Very popular with bumble bees. Looked them up. I think they are garlic chives and are invasive. Surprising I don’t have them popping up in my yard yet.

They all look pretty similar, you cant go wrong. When i was planting the shrubs behind them, I hit something solid. I dug it up and it turned out to be a huge 200lb stone, so now there is a dip in the ground and rain collects there. Normally they are pond margin or wetland margin plants.

Iris, I think I have the same plant??

I guess I should pull them out.

Looked through my Almost Eden orders. My shrub should be Calliandra eriophylla. Hm, but in that case it shouldn’t make it through the winters and it did survive the last two. It’s not available there anymore to check what they say.

Skip, any pictures of your mystery mimosa looking plants?

It sure looks the same! Any idea what they are? Probably not good news.

I didn't get a chance to go to the park for long this week to find that mimosa again. I just spent 30+min looking at pictures of weeds and still can't figure out what that is.

I can take my ruler out to take some good pictures for Name that Plant tomorrow. Thought it looked common enough for one of you to know. My weather man is confident that the rest of September will be above average in temperature. It was 98 today. I was hoping to plant all the perennials I still have in pots in the ground this month and do the trees/ shrubs in October.

Acalypha rhomboidea! 3 seeded mercury. Euphorbiaceae.

Bad,bad,bad!

Heres the thing that reminds me of Mimosa, maybe its just partridge pea?

On the right along the ground

All the white flowers in this field are Anaphalis margaritacea

That's nice. Can you send me a few hundred seeds? Partridge peas for sure. There is photo sensitivity and touch sensitivity. A lot of legumes are photo sensative and close their leaves at night. Only a few are touch sensitive and react when you touch them. They sell Chamaecrista fascicularis as sensative pea, which might fool people into thinking it moves when touched, but it doesn't. Chamaecrista nictitans is the species that's touch sensative. I have a lot of those Acalypha weeds in my yard. It's hard trying to pull them all. Something chews little holes in them, flea beetles I think, anyway it's a host plant for something.

Things I could volunteer for...

https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/event-calendar?d=&p=&vc=&a=57&id=

Jay, I didn’t get any further than Wikipedia yet. Why does it deserve a triple bad? At least it’s not Alien. And here I was taking a dozen pictures of it today.

It's not so bad. It's native. It doesn't bother the other plants. It gets a 0.5 bad lol. And that's for not being pretty. It's not as much of a nuisance as the milky spurge. That always grows between the patio bricks. I hope nobody will be offended if I stop hitting the like and thank buttons. Of course I love everyone's comments and I'm thankful for you all and your comments, it will just save time having to clean that stuff off your devices. I think I'll stop growing cypress vines once the panduratas get big.

I don’t mind! Hardly ever hit the like button, even though I do like things. Jay, sorry to tell you, but you probably will never stop growing cypress vines.

Lol about the cypress vines. I thought I recognized the 3 seeded mercury plant from something Jay was talking about some time ago, but couldn't remember what. Almost a full time job if you volunteer with that organization. Dont mind the like/thank buttons. Oh yes, saw some thistle too, is it pasture thistle?

Jay probably knows. I am still having a hard time to even tell a Canada thistle from a field thistle. I thought the field thistle is the one the green part under the petals is rounder, in Canada more oblong. I should really spend some time learning more about them.

My cypress vines won't ever get as bad as yours because I don't let mine grow up my palm trees and explode all over the yard lol. Come to think of it, I don't have any palm trees, but I've considered getting some.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/rhomb_mercury.htm

Birds eat the seeds of this Euphorbia and deer are supposed to eat it too. I leave it around unless it's out competing nicer plants. Just not that attractive.

Well, there is that....

Sunflowers flopped over from the wind. Kind of like my two colored Liatris.

The article doesn't say what insect chews holes in the leaves. What kind of Liatris is the one with 2 toned flowers?

Good question. I planted a couple of different ones last Summer. I am thinking it’s elegans. I have some of these little chew holes in the leaves, too. Does look like beetles, but I didn’t see anything.

It looks like the pictures of elegans. I found out about the Acalypha in the past year. It's been on name that plant a few times. I might have a chance to get Asclepias quadrifolia seeds soon. There must be some cudweed at one of the places around here.

Skip, is that thistle Cirsium discolor? I never see the tall thistle, C. altissimum anywhere, but it's supposed to be all around the area.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/savanna/plants/tall_thistle.htm

Iris, what kind of sunflower is that? Did your new rare sunflower bloom?

Jay, I dont know which thistle it is, I was hoping you would recognize it. I saw some much shorter thistles at a different park today.

That tall thistle looks much nicer and friendlier than the pasture thistle.

It's C. discolor. The leaf bottons should be light or white for both of those species. I really want the tall one. It's supposed to be all around my area, but I've never seen it. It's a lot less thorny.

Jay, the sunflower from yesterday was Maximillian. Schweinitzii actually had the first one today.

There are a scary number of unknown plants starting to bloom. There was ragweed and goldenrod in this area by my brushpile last year. This one looks like it will be white. If it doesn’t wilt and die before it flowers. Things are very droopy.

Elsewhere around my trees.

The top plant looks like a smart weed, Polygonum. The bottom is in Asteraceae, something weedy. The middle flower is pretty,but I don't know what it is.

Yeah the bottom one looks like erigeron or erechtites.

I got this unknown in my yard, hoping its something good. Going to watch it for blooms

I don’t think I have something like this. Fingers crossed it turns out to be something useful for you. 90% of mine seem to be bad news. Things are going crazy on the sickle pots.

Any thoughts on Bidens Alba?

It's not native to any of our states. It's not listed on bonap. It's pretty and I want it, so obviously seeds and plants for it are impossible to find.

https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=BIAL

It looks to be native for me.

I just looked it up since it seems special for the native bees (Xerces society). Looks like there are seeds on Etsy and EBay. Should probably look up how complicated this would be. Remember I am seed challenged.

I think it's also called Bidens pilosa. It's listed under that name on bonap.

2 figworts full of seedpods.

Asclepias sullivantii with seedpods.

Monarch cat on prairie milkweed.

This looks so nice!

Very nice. I like seeing where the plants grow in their natural habitat, like it looks like that figwort gets plenty of shade.

A couple didn't load.

Sneezeweed, Helenium.

Lobelia inflata, indian tobacco.

A mulberry with chicken feet leaves. I don't usually see this kind. I couldn't pull or dig it out, so I cut it to the ground and then messed up a few honeysuckles lol.

My coppiced mulberry has some leaves like that, and some that are round, on the same plant. I need to hire someone to grind those stumps.

Is that Eupatorium altissimum in the first photos?

Lokbhf

The blue flower is Mimulus ringens, not Lobelia. The white flowers are Eupatorium altissimum.

Now, I can't go back and edit my comments. I can only talk from a new comment. I hope this is temporary.

I mean I can't edit to add stuff. The Mimulus is a buckeye host plant. Those big Scrophularias were at the edge of a path with trees on both sides, but some clear sky above them. The smaller one that I saw a couple weeks ago was in more shade. It was growing at the edge of the path but the branches were completely covering overhead.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/monkeyflower.htm

Still puzzling what Lokbhf means. Little Hop tree still has a bunch of Tigers. They grow so slowly.

Growing out of a bald cypress. Wingstem, actually had it on Name that Plant last year and it came back. And another unknown, popular with the little ones.

Still no rain.

Nice pictures Iris. There could be 20 tiger cats in my cottonwood tree, but I'd never know.

More Scrophularia.

Anaphalis margaritacea. I finally found some.

Euthamia caroliniana. The grassiest of the grass leaves goldenrods.

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=EUCA26

90s yesterday, today, tomorrow.

It’s currently 98. You know what I just found watering? A castor bean of all things!

Did you grow castor beans at some time? You should put the little plant with the fuzzy flower on name that plant. It feels like a hundred with the humidity.

I never did. Haven’t seen any at the neighbor’s either. I didn’t put any plants up on Name that plant. Probably will at some point, would need some good pictures. There are also more weird critters daily. Checking the morning glories I rip out for Sphinx moth caterpillars. Today I had this one.

Skip, did you figure out your last unknown plant?

That's a crazy looking bug. Do you know the species? I can't figure out what Skip's plant is either.

I think it might be a tortoise shell beetle larvae, but I put it on the Insect forum.

Thats a nice Euthamia Jay, I Iike slender foliage like that. I check on the local Eupatorium hyssopifolium for seeds every week because it has skinny leaves. I have to try to ID the ones I saw by me, the flowers are opening more now.

Crazy looking bug, Iris. Need more pics of that plant/flower with the bee on it. Maybe Boltonia decurrens?

I dont know what my plant is, Im hoping the flowers open up more. Its growing right at the base of a silver maple, so if its a good plant, I want more of it in the same area.

I haven't seen any Eupatorium hyssupifolium around here. There are a lot of seeds that I want to get from the dunes where the Euthamia is growing, including it. I like the thin foliage too, and caroliniana has the thinnest leaves. Boltonia decurrens is on the Illinois endangered list. I direct sowed some Staphylea. Do you have any bladderpod?

Iris, I don't see any insect forum at gardenweb?

I had 5 Staphyleas but 2 of them died. I think i read they are commonly found in calcareous soil and mine were in one of the boggier areas of my yard. The ones that received the most sunlight died, but it was just 3-4 hours direct sun late morning to around 1pm. Im leaving them in the ground maybe they will resprout.

It’s under the nature forums if you are in the explore topics. Yep, got an answer and it is a tortoise shell beetle larvae. The little well behaved goldenrods I have are taking forever to bloom. The no rain situation combined with the heat is really frustrating. The neighbor I am house/ cat sitting for right now said not to worry, but I can’t just let their plants die. They planted a bunch of little trees this year, too. Might have to Hotwire the golf cart with the tank in the back they are usually using for watering them :)

I found the insects forum. It's not on the list I have of all the forums. I finally saw a snake yesterday. A big garter snake in my garden.

Is this the same Euthamia?

Eupatorium hyssopifolium, rare in this field

Do you know what this plant is?

Silene vulgaris, bladder campion. Not native. They are all around here and in my front yard.

Skip, nice find! That one is Euthamia graminifolia. It's the only other species of Euthamia native to New Jersey besides Euthamia caroliniana. Caroliniana has narrower leaves. I'd like to get seeds for the Eupatorium hyssupifolium. I've been looking for it There's another cool Eupatorium called sessilifolium. I'm going to collect Silene stellata seeds. They can handle shade good, and look much better than S. vulgaris.

Elephantopus caroliniana blooming 1st year from seed.

Agrimonia strista with 5 flower stems.

.The Cynanchum laeve has climbed about 5 feet. It will eventually become a monster. I should be able to give up planting any tropical, non native milkweeds within a year or 2, and have enough native species ,plus this monster vine to carry the load.

Rumex, not the prettiest plant, but it is an important host plant to many butterflies and moths.

Prairie/nursery bed. I'll have to thin these perennials in the spring. Hopefully new beds will be prepped.

The back of the bed near the overhanging tree branches. These plants are getting dappled sun, but I'm lopping off more branches to bring in more light.

I'm going to cut more overhanging branches. The mulberry is pushing the fence over. I'm going to girdle it and cut it down next year. The sun is moving further south so the branches are shading even more.

Besides the mulberry there's also a buckthorn and Chinese elm behind the fence that must be destroyed too. I don't know why I let those noxious trees get so big? Health issues I think? I was thinking of planting Zanthoxylum behind the fence once I get everything cleared. It will form an impenetrable thicket that's full of tiger and giant swallowtail cats. And if the fence falls apart, nobody can get in lol. It's like an oven outside!

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/gr_goldenrodx.htm

Skip, the Illinois wildflowers site says that Euthamia graminifolia has the thinnest leaves of the 3 species native here, but if you look at pictures it looks like caroliniana has thinner leaves. Illinois wildflowers doesn't have an article about caroliniana.

This is all looking great, Jay! Going to have to look up plant names later. It hit 100 degrees today. I was thinking since early Spring that I should cut down on the sickle pots. Good thing I didn’t get around to it. Looks like I will need all I have!

I keep hoping I get a bunch of cats on the sennas, but I haven't seen any yet. Some leaves have been eaten. I was picturing you scrambling around in a golf cart. It was 100 here too.

No, but I filled up my wheelbarrow with water for their little Blackgum. They just planted it this Spring and are really proud of it. It was 748 steps one way. Ha ha. Stuck my hose through the hedge for some trees I could reach. Well, the weather man is watching the next tropical system. Wonder when Woodthrush nursery is resuming their shipping. I wondered if my plants wouldn’t be really root bound when they said they will put them aside back in May, but they said they would be fine. Guess I will see. I have not ordered from them before.

Wow popular plant Iris.

Jay its all looking good. Cutting down the weed trees will be fun.

I am planning on a lot of tree pruning this Winter. Lots of Sumacs have to go. Cut a lot of lower branches on the big trees, at least to not poke my eyes out walking under them. I am going to need your advise as to how to go about the little ones that got deer pruned before. Otherwise they will all grow into shrubs.

You must get a lot of exercise running around trying to keep everything watered. I collected a bunch of woodland sunflower seeds.

Your pictures look so peaceful! How is it with the mosquitos around the water there? My neighbor is a fantastic baker, so all calories burned running around their property watering will get right back on. A freshly baked bread or German chocolate cake is usually my payment :)

The mosquitoes were bad. I used a lot of bug spray. They are worse in the woods.

Thought it time to come back in. Rained most of the day, over two inches which makes it over five inches for the month already. Sorry, but we seem to be stealing it all up here. Temps were 40 degrees cooler(colder!) than the rest of you down south more. Should have frost in three weeks or so.

Looks like Hummingbirds have already migrated so took down the sugar water feeder. Monarchs are gone too, but maybe some stragglers will show up once in a while.

Fall color show is on its way.

Caulophllum thalictroides

Aralia racemosa berries. Would make great jelly, maybe?

Garden pics. Those Beebalm sure have a long bloom time Tall coreopsis in back.

Cup plant

My Button Bush has buttons!

Sneeze Weed, Cup Plant,and white Turtle Head along the river

Single Joe Pye Weed

A sea of Jewel Weed. This only showed up last year and now look at it. Should I be worried I wonder? The good news it is covering up a lot of undesirables. Will let it do its thing for a few years at least.

Bottle Gentian

Cardinal Flower

Horse Gentian berries

Black Cherry with weird color change.

J.I.T.P. Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Elderberry Adams/Johns showing berry clusters

Hillside Echinacea

Pink Turtle Head

Correopsis tripteris

Blue Baptesia seed pods

sunset

Very nice. There are about 9 plants there I was hoping to grow, but they never germinated. I didn't know you grew horse gentian. Beautiful pictures!

Tina James evening primrose starting to open, 2nd from top

Notice the wrapper flipped down along the stem now

Now the top one is making its move

All done. I didn't see the pollinator show up so took a paint brush and dabbed pollen around.

Dandy, that Oenothera is a biennial right? Why is the 'Tina James' cultivar special? Cool pictures!

Great pictures, Dandy! Everything is looking so good, it’s kind of hard to believe it is going to freeze soon. Love the weird color on your cherry.

Is your noid plant blooming Skip?

view from the deer path

hidden room off deer path it's all pretty much a giant thicket of invasive bush honeysuckles.

I'm looking due south. There is a field of tall red grass and then train tracks and then those trees and then the canal and then the canal path.

Nice pictures, Jay! My tiny little buckeye has some serious seed pods. Do they work like the ones on Sycamore? Going to google....

I don't know much about trees. I collected a few different kinds of seeds. Wild quinine, compass plant, Arnoglossum, native honeysuckle.

.

I looked it up. Not the same at all. The buckeye ones are kind of like chestnut looking in there. With the sycamore, I put the seed ball into a bag and hit it with a hammer. Lots of little tiny seeds. Are there labels coming for your pictures? What kind of aster is this?

Nice garden pics Dandy, flowering times seem bizarre compared to here, but very nice.

Nice pics also Jay. What is that plant flopping into the path? My NOID hasnt changed or bloomed.

Any idea what these are?

Im going on a little getaway soon, Im trying to convince my wife to make a stop along the way where I can look for a few acorns from Quercus prinoides, dwarf chinkapin oak, its a shrub oak in the white group native to the east coast, a rare combo.

Good luck with the convincing! Just looked it up. Now why am I left out? That’s just weird.

That is weird Iris, but it will handle drought and sandy soil so I think it would be a good fit for you once established. Bonap shows it in your state http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Quercus%20prinoides.png

I wrote it down. Doesn’t look like a lot of places are selling it.

The Quercus prinoides is a nice looking oak. Illinois wildflowers says it isn't in the state even tho bonap says it is. Skip, your upper plant looks like an arrowwood Viburnum species, maybe recognitum? The second plant is Linaria vulgaris from Europe, also called toadflax and miniature snapdragon. I have to look at what genus that's in now. The overhanging plant is Solidago rigid, stiff goldenrod. There was another large flowered goldenrod out there with smooth leaves.

Unknown Solidago?

Apocynum cannibinum seed pods.

path

some kind of rye grass?

New England aster.

grasses, goldenrods, wild quinine

All the Monarchs hatching now will be flying to Mexico. I'm starting to see them roosting in the big oaks. I haven't seen any more baby cats There is still a lot of milkweed left.

Finally, the popcorn cassia is forming flower buds.

These sicklepods haven't seen much action, yet?

I thought this Astragalus canadensis was shutting down for winter, but when I looked closer, I see that skipper cats have eaten a lot of it down. You can see the glued leaves where they are hiding. I might have to move a couple to the Apios vine.

A lush Lespedeza capitata with another behind it that was eaten by skipper cats. I think it's pupating n the glued leaves at the top.

The Senna occidentalis has glands in the stem nodes that secrete nectar. They are all covered with ants. 1 common name for this species is ant bush. Fire ants will protect the plants from herbivores so they might not be the best sennas for host plants. The species is native and pantropical. I don't know if the little red ants that are all over them here would harm any eggs or cats. I know there are some other myrmecophytes in Fabaceae. The were a few other bugs resting on these sennas and the ants weren't bothering them.

The Linaria is in the family Plantaginaceae. This whole area of snapdragon like plants has been reclassified. Figworts and Verbascums are still in Scrophulariaceae. Agalinis is in Orobochia, Veronicastrum and Antirrhinum are in Plantaginaceae, tribe Veronicaceae.

Agalinis is in the family Orobanchaceae. I think the semi parasitical false foxgloves and Pedicularis are in that family, maybe broomrape?

I still can't edit.

Iris, your Sida plant is big in Chinese and Indian medicine. They call it the love plant. Maybe lady cats will eat it.

https://youtu.be/Bt7X1ezNQxw

I am going to look the Sida plant up later. Also need to take a closer look at all your pictures. Currently very frustrated dragging the water hose around. There were thunderstorms all around me last night. Looked on the radar like there was a heavy downpour maybe 3 miles from me. I got nothing. And the highest percentage in the next 10 days is 20%.

I can’t believe you think you are already done with the Monarchs! Still egg laying going on, and caterpillars of all sizes. I really like your Lespedeza capitata, should look that up. I am not sure about the Sida plant, guess I will leave it alone since it looks like it is an annual. I don’t think I have the tropical checkered skipper around to use it as host plant. Close according to the map though.

There is still a lot of milkweeds so I'd be happy if the Monarchs layed more eggs.

I will need to prepare better next year. In my defense, they came a month early. But I am going to cut the common milkweed back after the Spring ones leave to have enough new growth. Hornets went vegetarian on me. They were all over the pears.

The common milkweed threw up a bunch of new stalks and branches on the plants that get the most sun. I haven't seen any tussock moth cats yet.

Is that a bald faced hornet?

First picture is the European one, the second one is the bald faced. Got stung by a bald faced one in the neck a while back. Boy, that was painful.

I think your noid goldenrod is one of these three. Ulmifolia, petula or squarrosa.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/elm_goldenrod.htm

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/sw_goldenrod.html

https://uwaterloo.ca/astereae-lab/research/goldenrods/classification-and-illustrations/solidago-squarrosa

It's Solidago patula.

I'll get some close-ups of the lowest leaves and stems later

I was checking out these blue eyed Mary plants. Collinsia verna. They must be blooming around here somewhere in the spring, but I've never noticed them. There is a violet flowered species too, Collinsia violacea. A third species that's mostly in California, but strangely occurring in Illinois called C. heterophylla, Chinese houses. They are in the figwort group, but when I look them up on wikipedia somebody messed up and part of the description is talking about a spider. Oh and I can't find seeds for blue eyed Mary anywhere online. It's a winter annual, so the plants are germinating now and will bloom in the spring. I'd like to have some because the flowers have a true blue color, it's a good nectar plant, and they can take shade, and even dry shade. It rained all night sorry. Check this out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collinsia

I was like, wow, never heard of that plant family before lol.

Interesting, never heard of them. None native to NJ.

Found in my yard today

The Collinsia verna is cute. Interestingly, there is no USDA map for it. Monarch is still at it

Frostweed is staring to bloom

the Goldenrods are not getting anywhere. Looking the same for the past 10 days. Should tie this one up, leaning over the driveway.

Ageratina and Bidens. There is so much Ageratina here, more than anything else. The Canada goldenrod comes in close second. I have a Bidens like that, that volunteered from somewhere. These are the unshowy, (ugly?) bidens. I think B. frondulosa is the species I have. I would have pulled it out, but something was eating it, so I left it. There are a few awesome, showy Bidens that I want to collect seeds for. That Bidens will have hundreds of volunteers if you let it set seed. There was an ugly Bidens at the other garden and the next year they were everywhere.

I meant to say Bidens frondosa.

Yeah I didnt know which Bidens it was at first, I figured the flowers were going to open up more but when I did some researching I knew it was frondonsa and its not getting any prettier. At least its a nectar source. There is already a ton of it in the side yard between properties, its a slight inprovement over the Persicaria perfoliata. I like the white snakeroot, its common around here too but the flowers on the one plant were practically glowing pure white, really caught my eye.

Iris nice pictures! I removed some similar goldenrod today that was growing behind my AC unit. Dont have space for a plant like that where all the utilities need to be accessable.

Jay how is your Lespedeza violacea, mine perked up and bloomed

The ones in full sun are smaller, this one is kind of shaded by the perennials around it.

The Lespedezas haven't grown
much at all. Maybe the roots are doing most of the growing? They wouldn't survive any caterpillars at this point. They are getting part sun. It looks like all 3 Senna species will be blooming around the same time. The coffee senna, Senna occidentalis the 'ant bush', they also call it septic weed because it smells like a septic tank, but I don't think they smell too bad. I should plant them together with the outhouse plants lol .My frostweeds look like they want to bloom 1st year too. I think all the Monarchs around here now are going to be migrating, and they aren't laying any more eggs. The days are short enough to keep them in that state. Yeah, some of the snakeroots are really snow white, there are a bunch growing way back into the shade on the deer path like that. I also left the Bidens frondifolia for the pollinators, but I'm not going to let it set seed. Even tho there were a lot of volunteers at the other place, I was able to get them under control fast after pulling all of them up, so clearing that area shouldn't be hard.

I must've spaced and overlooked the Solidago rugosa, my bad, sorry!

Wow, Skip, all this time I thought the Lespedeza you sent was the Hypericum! I was just out there and saw a violet Lespedeza flower. So I think I need to move the st. John's worst to a way sunnier spot. The Canada milkvetch has been defoliated by 'skipper' cats really bad!

Hypericum?

Hyoericum?

Lespedeza violacea!

Canada milkvetch fulfilling the purpose I planted it for. Might be able to see the little light green cat on stem .

There is what appears to be a crysalis inside the rolled up leaves. I thought maybe they might be eastern tailed blue cats, but those look more slug-like. I'm keeping an eye on it in case the cat eats all the leaves and I need to move it to a Lespedeza. Now I have 5 pretty nice ones here and 4 at the other place. Any idea what kind of skipper Iris? Most likely silver spotted?

I bought concentrated glysophate and painted it full strength on the tops of all the trumpet vines that I cut to the ground. There hasn't been any new growth. The roots of the vine travel about 20 feet underground and there were shoots popping up everywhere and in the patio bricks and now the neighbor's side of my fence and even into the bed that I just planted. I cut everything down to ground level and then paint it. It's working. I have to stay on it constantly, that's the only way you can eradicate something. I was listening to Doug Tallamy talking about how his new yard was overrun with Japanese honeysuckles and stilt grass when he first moved in.

Hmmm...I thought I spied something pale yellow and trumpet-y shaped/looking last week, peeking over my fence (same neighbor whose P. incarnata crawled over and is sending sprouts deeper into my yard). I wish I would've taken a pic of the bloom at the time. Maybe something like this:

I hope it'll end up being baseless paranoia. It's pouring rain now (yup!); otherwise, I'd snap a pic of the leaves.

Good luck Javi, maybe its a better behaved version.

Jay. Yes your ? plants are Hypericum. I cant even find mine in the garden they have been overtaken by orange coneflower, olaying the long game with those, one day they'll be too big and woody and theyll shade out the coneflowers instead. Same strategy I'm taking with the NJ tea. Japanese stilt grass and honeysuckle, that sounds so familiar! Which recording was it? I heard one where he said he removed the top 2" of soil and replaced it with municipal leaf compost. That doesnt sound cheap.

I am better watching out pulling the Morning Glories:)

Got an email from Wood Trush today, they will be shipping my plants this week. Now what did I order. Jay, what kind of location are your Stenanthium gramineum planted in?

Javi, your neighbors plant is a yellow trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, 'flava'. It's the same vine I've been trying to kill for 10 years. Well, except mine is orange, with another peach 2 toned Chinese species C. grandiflora. The branches will catch the wind and bust the fence posts like they did to mine. I wonder if your neighbor has any idea how aggressive and destructive they really are. All good reasons they should be introduced to all these invasive honeysuckles and buckthorns. Skip, I think I should move the hypericum into a sunnier spot. I can't believe I didn't know what was what. I was like, wait a minute Hypericums don't have purple flowers. The Lespedeza flowers are smaller than I thought they'd be. I'll try to find the Tallamy video where he talks about how he and his wife converted the weed infested yard into a wildlife sanctuary over a few years time. Iris, my Stenanthiums are in the shade. garden with all the spring wildflowers and ephemerals. I think they like good soil with a lot of organic matter. I noticed the popcorn cassia seems to be releasing nectar from its stems and there are big black ants feeding on it. The coffee sennas are covered in little ants, very strange. Maybe I shouldn't deadhead any legumes in case things are hibernating in the pods. I'm getting a grass that's important for bees.

This is the nearest park. They mowed the natives for hay., but these plant at the woods edge got spared.

This is an oak in the field.

The mowed prairie. The deer like the fresh grass.

Like I said.

This is a hill at another woods. I call it Thalictrum hill because it's covered in Thalictrums that never bloom because it's too shady.

An aster that wants to be a goldenrod.

The ground was wet so why not? The only good invasive bush honeysuckle is a dead honeysuckle.

This is another woods across the street. No paths that I could find, but this woods looks richer. I just stepped in and I'm seeing aaterleaf and moonseed vines. These waterleafs will germinate in the fall.

Same woods.

Figwort.

So this Laportea canadensis is further along and dropped most of their seeds. I was collecting some, and I swear there's more stingers on the seeds than the stems. My hands felt like they had dozens of mosquito bites. The itching was intense!

I found another huge colony of Impatiens pallida. The seeds were still green.

I lost my sense of direction and had to walk back by access road.

Ageratina is everywhere here.

This is the video. I thought he mentioned Japanese honeysuckles and stiltgrass, but I don't hear him mention them specifically. It's only a half hour.

https://youtu.be/w39g_f7BMUk

Dandy, this is about the name 'Tina James Primrose '.

https://www.uaex.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/Oenothera-glazioviana-Tina-James-Evening-Primrose.aspx

The Solidago bicolor is a nice species. It has whitish flowers. You can't get seeds or plants for it, so if anybody sees some, try to get seeds. You probably already have it Iris, lol. It's not gold it's white, but it's white goldenrod or silver rod. I'm going away for a few days. Don't worry!

Great pictures, Jay! Enjoy your time away! Going to look up the Solidago bicolor and keep my eyes open. Then again, I didn’t notice my Christmas Senna came back after all until today.

I found a place with Solidago bicolor if you are prepared to buy a flat of 50 for $100 lol. Toadshade is selling seeds and plants too. Ernst sells the seeds by the pound. Will Christmas Senna bloom around Christmas for you Iris, is it that warm where you are?

I ordered seeds for Liatris scariosa var nieuwlandii from Prairiemoon. I wanted to go get a regular scariosa plant from the preserve nursery in PA but I dont think I'll have time to go before they close for the season. Hoping this is the east coast equivalent of the Liatris ligulistylis. I think I will have to put a cage around it for a while to keep the critters from eating it.

The Christmas Senna bloomed October until the first Frost beginning of November. It was my second try, it’s kind of pushing the Zone. I stopped checking if it is alive and coming back in mid June, so it was a nice surprise. None of my Indian Pinks came back though :( I really like them. Maples and Oaks are dropping leaves. I really need some rain.

This one reminded me of fleabane, but they flowered a long time ago. It’s leaning sideways, otherwise it would probably be almost 6 feet tall.

I asked in Spring about a plant that looked like two. I did plant a Missouri iron weed there. Seems the one with the narrow leaves is the ironweed

the other one is constantly being eaten, so it might never bloom

Broadleaf mountain mint is still a popular place

The first one looks like panicled aster Symphyotrichum lanceolatum, or a similar species. 4th pic also looks like ironweed.

Thank you, Skip! Do you think one plant would have two completely different kind of leaves or two different kinds of ironweed came in one pot? Great job taking over my endless questions :)

Fall is in the air, I suppose. First woolybear today.

Going to look up the aster now.

The pics online of missouri ironweed have wide leaves like your 4th pic. Maybe there is natural variation or 2 seedlings were in the one pot, not sure. Compare your first plant to Symphyotrichum dumosum too.

Someone posted in a thread in the tree forum this tree nursery in PA, https://www.gonativetrees.com they have an awesome selection, including the dwarf oak I was looking for, as well as running serviceberry.

Should I really look for more trees while struggling to keep mine alive? Still no rain in the ten day forecast. Have about 20 pots of trees and shrubs standing around to be planted. Post oak, blackjack oak, spice Bush, button Bush, willow, pecan, shag bark hickory and so on. I am probably still going to look....

Hi all - I've been lurking for awhile, but would like to join the fun.

Question - I have what I'm pretty sure is Solidago Canadensis. I've loved the pollinator action it gets, but it is just too aggresive for my space. Which goldenrod species have you grown in a garden space that have been well-behaved? Showy? Stiff? Something else? I'm west Chicago suburbs, zone 5b

Not in my garden now but I'm planning to try Solidago odora next year.

Its a fragrant plant. It seeds around but does not form dense monocolonies.

Im struggling to find one native to the Chicago region that does NOT spread aggressively. I would try S. speciosa, or the wooland ones S. caesia, flexicaulis, and ulmifolia if you have a shadier area.

Thanks, Skip. I'm not sure that Odora is native to the Chicago region. I do have flexicaulis in a partly shady spot in the back yard. I just planted it but it has plenty of room to be agressive. The spot where I currently have the canadensis is full sun, fairly dry, clay and alkaline.

I wanted to say thank you to all of you. This is my first year where I really got the importance of natives, and I am converting "Traditional" garden to natives and re-wilding my yard. Seeing the pictures of your plants has been so helfpul as I'm making the transition (which will certainly take time). Especially thank you to Jay, who I believe is most likely one or two counties away so your natives are my natives.

Hi Hollyanne. The odora actually isn't native to Illinois. I thought it and was/am still trying to grow it . Solidago drummundii is a clump forming species. Here is a link to bonap that shows all 112 Species of Solidago. Of those, 28 are native to Illinois. Another nice looking species is S. rigida. It form a big clump over time and then needs to be divided like other perennials, but I think it's one of the nicer ones. If you want to go though all the species you can look at the bonap chart and then try to read about each species on the Illinois wildflowers site. If they don't have it written about, the Laby Bird and Minnesota wildflower sites have good info. Also Prairie Moon Nursery carries seeds for quite a few species, and they have great info about each species too. I growing a few species from seed, so it looks like I'll be sowing seeds for S. bicolor, S. ptarmicoides, S. cassia, S.flexicaulis, cliff goldenrod, S. rigida, .S. flexicaulis. S, odors, and the grass leaves goldenrod Euthamia caroliniana. Ok it's up to 9 species, that's it no more. I don't want to way overboard again, but they are all so awesome. I'm in Will County. Where are you, Cook?

http://bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Solidago

http://bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Euthamia

Texas craglily is starting to bloom. How come I have everything Texas? Thinking about Javi and her awful weather.

The sorry state of my lawn.

and just because he is kind of cute. Whatever he is.

What awful weather? The Monarch on the rue enclosed, and then a little while later a giant enclosed. Is your lawn dormant? Will it come back? What kind of butterfly is thagbct?

Javi is dealing with the tropical storm, or is it now a depression? My lawn is dead. Still no rain. Not worrying about that, but some of my trees and shrubs are starting to look really bad. It’s a Gulf Fritillary. Yay for the Monarch and the Giant! The Giants don’t migrate, do they? Going to look that up. Got my plant order today. I am not impressed. They are tiny. Especially for this time of the year. Wonder what they were looking like in May since they had a couple of months to grow since then.

What are tiny, the Stenanthium? I don't know where giants go. Is this the worst drought that you've ever had? Has your lawn ever died before? Now why did the nursery take so long?

The plants are all tiny. The Stenanthium are maybe 3 inches and 2 or 3 leaves. Guess will see what the roots look like when I plant them. Did you ever order from Wood Trush? They didn’t ship because it got too hot. It’s usually dry in September, but it has also been hot. The grass has died before, it’s mostly weeds, they will come back. I am afraid though that it will be the same as it was 3 years ago. Lost some trees and shrubs that were at least 10 years old.

Jay, I am in DuPage! I think I am going to try to replace the canadensis with solidago rigida or rugosa. I have some little bluestem and prairie dropseed seedlings that will hopefully provide support for it. I saw this combination when we were at Knoch Knolls a couple of weeks ago. I know that I will have to control the seeds, but hopefully it will not be too aggressive

Hollyanne, How long have you been gardening? There used to be a huge native nursery in St. Charles called The Natural Garden. There's a guy in Batavia with Natural Communities nursery. The rigida isn't aggressive. I know there is at least 1 variation called Solidago rigida var. rigida. I think the Canada goldenrod is very agressive compared to most other goldenrods. I pull it all out during the year and more seeds then blow into the yard and germinate. I'm not familiar with S. rugosa. Sounds like a nice combination with the grasses. I love prairie dropseed.

Iris, my Stenanthiums from Izel were tiny also. I hope I don't have to wait several years to see flowers. I moved my Stenanthiums to a different garden and they've been dormant for a while. Why haven't I grown that bunch flower yet? I think I may have ordered something from Wood Thrush in the past. Everything must have went smoothly or I'd remember. I'll have to look at what they have. They might have serpentaria plants? At least we have Stenanthiums. A woman member here is selling A. variegata seeds on etsy. 25 seeds for $25. I don't know how many of my variegata plants will come back in the spring. The Monarch cats ate most of them. The Acmispon anericanus has tiny seedpods. I think it's amazing that some bugs are small enough to pollinate it. I found a woods close by that has a bunch of blue eyed Marys. They germinate now and finish growing in the spring. I think I'll leave the Zinnias, Tithonias ect for the birds to eat in the winter. I'll try to make seedbeds elsewhere. Do you see ants on your popcorn cassias? The big, black ants on mine look like they're on high alert.

At the forest preserve headquarters. Getting an ID on Symphyotrichum ericoides.

I like the thin foliage. I'm going to collect seeds of it.

Another white aster near the ericoides.

At 1st, I thought it might be cudweed.

Symphyotrichum ericoudes, the heath aster.

Pycnanthemum tenuifolia.

Pynanthum tenuifolia.

That reed grass is the same grass that grows between the deer path and the train tracks. There's no way I'm going to walk through that. I'd be covered in ticks and chiggers probably lol.P

I'm documenting invasives. This is Elaeagnus umbellata. It has sour tasting berries. It had me going the other day, thinking it was a prickly ash. What I've been thinking was a Tephosia seedling might actually be a locust. I saw the exact same leaves on a tree at the park. I ordered more Tephrosia seeds from Prairie Moon. Why is it so difficult to get even 1 Tephrosia plant?

peaceful pond scum! There used to be a bunch of Lotuses here. Or is it Loti? It's funny, as I walk along the canal there are always things jumping into the water, ahead of me.

Looks like a nice hike Jay. Are you documenting the invasives for your own purposes or as part of some other thing? I have some blue wood aster and big leaf aster flowering in my yard.

I finally planted my Elephantopus, the soil was dry and rock hard and Im going away for the weekend, fingers crossed they survive. I planted about 14, hope a few of them will make it to next year.

You might get rain because it rained here all night. 4 of my 5 Elephantopus are blooming. The 5th plant is smaller. Will you be having any milkvetch seeds? I'm taking pictures of the invasives to maybe show them to the park district. The Illinois Native Wildflower Society is having their fall picnic at that park and I know more about that place than any of them. I just want to give them the scoop on what's going on there. These people know a lot about plants. It's just the canal part that has all the invasives. I want to show them all the beautiful natives there too. It's on Oct.20th so must everything will be brown by then. Have a nice trip!

Javi, I hope you are alright. I was just watching the news. I didn't realize it was that bad.

My milkvetch went crazy this year, I will look for seeds on it when I get home on monday.

Jay, can’t you send the rain my way for once? Good idea to show the Native Plant society what is going on with the invasives. Maybe some of them do know, but have no idea what to do about them. Javi was fine, hopefully on her way to her vacation by now (sorry Javi, don’t want to speak for you, but don’t want anybody to worry if we don’t hear from you for a week :) ) Ripping the buttonweed out is still a no go in my yard. Looked at the list of plants available at the greenhouse sale from my native plant society. Sadly nothing I want. But the prices would be great. 6 dollars for a gallon pot sounds fantastic.

Monarch chrysalis on my porch. Well, they can’t all make it. I guess T fly?

That's weird Iris because I was going to talk to you about tersa sphinx moths. Somebody was showing pictures of how 1 cat ate all her Pentas down to sticks. I know it will be a while before I have enough buttonweed to feed one cat. The is another native with bigger leaves called Spermacoce glabra, but it's impossible to find seeds or plants for it. So until I find seeds or plants I'll be growing Pentas. Is the cat in the picture eating buttonweed?

Great pictures, Jay! Yes, it was on buttonweed. I saw a few nibble holes, so I was careful pulling it up. Not that there is a careful way. The roots are terrible. I just have two Pentas planted this year. No caterpillars and not much in the way of pollinators, so I might skip them next year. Should probably go with Skip’s suggestion on growing cacti. I am getting so frustrated with spending hours a day watering.

I wish I could send a lot of rain your way. I guess maybe from now on you should only get drought tolerant plants. Some of the prairie plants have very deep roots. I want to replace all the non native Sedum at the old place with some drought resistant plants. I ordered some seeds from Prairie. That's already taken care of. I ordered the Solidago bicolor from the place Skip told me about, and I ordered Packera aurea seeds from them too. What they are asking for snakeroot, serpentaria seeds is a crime. My cat has diabetes. He's not as strong, but I don't want to have to put him down. He'll be 12yo next month.

And so it already starts again with the seeds. Well, I guess you never stopped. I am sorry to hear about your cat’s diagnosis. Can’t they get it under control?

We're giving him shots and pills. He's just a lot weaker all of a sudden. He used to sleep upstairs and now he can barely climb the stairs. I picked him up and carried him this morning. I've gotten all the seeds I'm going to get, except a couple more milkweeds that I'm waiting for Prairie Moon to have in stock again. I'm debating whether to get more seeds of Aristolochia serpentaria or just find a place that sells plants. The cheapest they sell those seeds is $20 for 5 seeds. I paid about that much last year and none germinated. If none germinate again, that will be $40 down the drain. And the sickening part is all the people over harvesting them in the wild and selling the roots by the pound, so yeah, I think it's a crime the seeds are so expensive. I ordered for drought tolerant natives, because I want to replace the non native Sedums around the foundation with native host and pollinator plants. I had 1 black crysalis and it looked like OE. That means that some people in the south are leaving their infected milkweeds sitting out all year. Or they are just too lazy to fix it. I called the tallgrass prairie and they said the Monarchs have already started roosting out there. That's weird. Did you see the pictures of my yard yesterday with the mountain mint?

I swear I put these pictures on here.

I thought this was goat's rue, Tephrosia, but it's really honey locust, Gleditsia. I'm pulling it out.

Elephantopus

shortgrass prairie

'Strawberry Fields' Not one morning glory has been allowed to flower and seed.( except cypress vines lol!)

'Fireworks'

Echinacea, ect.

Pycnanthemum

Nabalus

Hieracium

Ipomoea pandurata.

I did see the mountain mint. They just keep on blooming, don’t they? I am not sure what my plans for next year are. Still bummed that none of my 3 Indian Pinks came back this year. Hope your cat improves. I don’t have any. The last one died about 4 years ago. We had three sisters, two of them died before they were even 9 years old. They had cystic kidney disease.

So was the picture of mint I saw in a park? By now your garden looks like a park, unless I can see a water hose. I have some sort of locust tree. No spikes on it, or not yet. It’s covered with little caterpillar silk nests.

There were 4 skipper cats on the Canadian milkvetch. I thought the big, fat cat was ready to pupate and I put it on the Amorpha fruticosa, and it ate 2 more branches. The common mountain mint is in the garden. I want to get one more mountain mint with wide leaves. There's a couple species to choose from. I hope it has more than just that 1 flower.

These are the Pycnanthemum tenuifolia from the park Iris. I collected seeds.

Sorry to hear about your ongoing rain shortage Iris. Is there a dry region in the southeast you can pick plants from or replicate?

Its always tough when cats get old. My mothers 3 cats, which we got when I still lived there, have all passed in the last year.

This butterfly bush at the rental property Im at is quite a hit

I hope I can get the same or better reaction in my yard next year with some natives. I would think new york aster, new england aster, liatris scariosa, and circium discolor would have similar appeal. I hope to move the outhouse plants and get the tree stumps taken out so I can accomplish a little side yard meadow.

I am going to have to look some plants up. The lack of rain seems to be the new normal. Weatherman just said there is another heat wave with no rain coming. Kudzu on the side of the roads is still looking remarkably good. I swear, one of these days, I am going to grab the wrong one

big Tulip tree still looking alright, the smaller ones are stressed out.

Senna didymobotrya with big, black ants.

Lespedeza violacea.

Sassafrass cutting still has a green leaf after 2 months.

The Amorpha fruticosa has been on the menu.

Stone root seeds. Collinsonia canadensis.

A Cunila plant bloomed. Looks better in person.

I think this is another Euthamia species that was growing by the deer path. Not sure which species.

Ageratinas and wood asters blooming. I just scattered some Smilax, figwort, and Maianthemum seeds in that area.

Great pictures, Jay! My Fruticosa has been eaten, too. Not just caterpillars. Looks the deer are desperate. The well behaved goldenrod is finally starting to bloom.

The mystery plant I thought would bloom white (I posted probably 10 days ago), doesn’t look anything like I thought it would.

That plant looks a little like a goldenrod. I would put it on name that plant. That's a nice yellow goldenrod. Could it be Solidago bicolor? There are a few holy basil plants in my front yard. I don't know how they could have grown there unless they were in an germinated bin I dumped out. There is this chart that shows how deep the roots of prairie plants go down. I should start growing a bunch of Liatris cylindrica and I'd never have to water it. My next door neighbor goes exploring around here too with her dog. I thought I had chiggers for the third time but it was bursting in my socks that didn't wash out. lol What a relief! It's kind of neat the way milkweed bugs all stick together. It was freaky seeing all the discarded moltings. Do you think your drought is because of climate change, or does South Carolina normally go through this? Up until this year I was in a dry patch and wondered why everybody further east was getting drenched with rain. Do you have water restrictions? Are there still mosquitos with no rain?

I used the wrong chart. The compass plant and Liatris cylindrica have the deepest roots.

No water restrictions except my own by now. The 2 hoses I use in the front yard are connected to faucets from the well (that was our only water source when we moved here). By now I loose the water pressure after 1.5 hours and have to wait a few hours to be able to water some more. Water the back with city water. It really has just started to be like this for the past maybe 6 years. Could use some remnants of a tropical system to come through. The drainage pond on the property behind mine is completely empty. Seems the deer are using my fountains and bird baths as drinking source a lot. Have to fill them up every day. Saw a possum drinking from my fish pond. I am going to look some plants up. While I don’t have a single cloud in the sky, my daughters are walking in the clouds. The older one visited her little sister in Peru this week.

That's nice. My roommate went to Peru a few years ago and saw Machu Picchu. I've always wanted to see the rainforest down there. My niece spent some time in Ecuador. You must get exhausted spending so much time in the heat? I don't remember any year being as wet as this year was. A lot of the plants that I winter sowed were drought tolerant because we had been having droughts every year too. Now, I don't know what to expect any more except the unexpected. Have a decent seed mix, use mycorrhizae and hope for the best. I have seeds for compass plant. There is cup plant, compass plant, rosinweed, whorled rosinweed, and prairie dock. 5 native Silphiums. I think the Liatris scariosa that Skip mentioned has very deep roots too. I think that's the reason I ordered seeds for it from Prairie Moon. Their's is a special variation of the species. How are your milkweeds? Does the fascicularis handle being dry better?

I do have compass plant. I am very impressed with the fascicularis. The leaves are pretty small, so it has been eaten down to nothing twice this year, but it’s bouncing back quickly. The aquatic milkweed is also looking good, but not a single caterpillar. The rest? Not so much.

2 of my aquatic milkweeds were eaten down to sticks. The other 2 almost, but 2 of them bloomed in their first year. I won't know what milkweeds will survive until spring. Some wilted and looked like they died, but I know they were already developing small tubers, so who knows?

Ever heard of Silphium simpsonii ? The USDA map shows it as native in only Florida (but the maps have been a bit weird lately it seems). Looks like a nice plant, but seems hard to find.

I've never heard of it. Bonap doesn't have it listed. How did you learn about it. I going to try to grow the rosinweed, S. integrifolium. It's very similar looking to the S. simpsonii. There's another called starry rosinweed, S. asteriscus. I was looking at the Verbesinas too and there's a new one for me called Verbesina helianthoides, yellow crownbeard. It looks like wingstem, except the flowers have all their petals.

I was looking for pandurata seeds.

.

Someone posted pictures of it on a Butterfly Facebook page. Said it loves the hot Summers. Why am I thinking of new plants? Weatherman had his fake concerned face on while he was talking of heatwave with no rain in sight for the next two weeks. Beautiful pictures! Everything looks so green!

Are you in a facebook butterfly group?

I did join one. Also a Pollinator yard one, but it’s very strict. I do like the form of reading here a lot more. It’s time consuming if you have to click on the replies after the comments. Plus I am a lot more comfortable here with the people I know. Not to mention all the plant suggestions, help identifying all kinds of plants and insects. Garden web, or at least the Topics I look at are really slow lately though. So not much to read up on at night after I am done with my chores.

I feel the same. I'm in the grow milkweed group and now the Illinois Native Plant Society group. The people in the INPS are people who I might actually meet. I do feel much more at home here tho. Do you grow Asclepias obovata? It's native there. It rained for 48 straight hours here. They had a couple cool videos on facebook. One was a tiny wasp laying eggs on a bunch of orange aphids, and the other was a Liatris that was so packed with Monarchs, that they looked like aphids. And them all the Monarchs moved their wings in a wave, just like aphids move, very strange! I saw a lot of black aphids on my plants. I wonder if they were parisitized? I haven't seen any tussock moth cats, and there is a lot of milkweeds left. The days are too short so the Monarchs stopped laying. Some people only focus on Monarchs and ignore all the other species. Some of these plants like Amorpha nitens are listed as native to Illinois, but when I research more they, only occur at the southern tip. Did you get that Prunella plant? I need to collect seeds from them at the woods.

I don’t have obovata. Should look it up. I am going to give up trying Poke milkweed. It’s just not working for me. I did get the Prunella. It’s alive, but not growing. Hopefully working on the roots. Still trying to find the Amorpha Nitens.

Obovata is native for you, but I want to grow it maybe someday. I think I have seedling/s of Asclepias pumila, plains milkweed. It's native right next door in Iowa. It looks very similar to your fascicularis, but I think the pumila is prettier lol. So, I don't need fascicularis. A girl here at gw is selling variegata and viridis seeds on etsy. I had bad luck with the viridis seedlings so I ordered more viridis seeds from her. That plant you don't know with the whitish yellow flowers. Can you take pictures of the foliage. I'm really curious to find out what it is.

Ick, Iris take this weather back. Got home to a dry 91 degrees and lots of crispy yellow plants and grass. 91 ties or is 1 degree off of tying the high temp record for September 23rd. 50% chance of showers tonight, <1/10". Supposed to cool off some later this week. At least the mystery goldenrod finally has a couple flowers on it.

Ha ha, Skip. Never gave my weather up. It’s 94 degrees and sunny. Happy Fall!

Jay, I took some pictures of the leaves. Will put them up a bit later. They are still on my camera and I am not done watering yet.

So here is the plant

Meanwhile this creeping cucumber stuff is showing up everywhere

so are new Gulf Fritillary

lots of these skinny wasps around

and I know it’s not native, but the toad lilies have been there for 15 years. This year they have an unusual dark color. Weird.

Iris, I have no idea what your plant is. Those leaves are strange.

Beautiful pictures, Jay! That’s some serious fungus on the tree! Should I put it on Name that plant or do I need to take more pictures? I do have a couple more.

You have enough pics. Put it on there. Do you know what kind of cat that is?

I have seen the cat before and looked it up, but I forgot. It looks like the one on the cover page of my caterpillar ID book. The book that is still in a box because home renovation is taking forever....

I've seen s picture of that same cat recently. It couldn't be a sphinx cat, could it? I couldn't tell what kind of plant it was eating, because it was just a stick.

Skip, how are your Elephantopus plants looking? All the rain we had here went more north and missed you. Did you collect acorns, or are you just ordering plants from that tree nursery? The buffalo grass spreads by runners like strawberries. Probably will make it easier to control. I think the Salvia azurea plants were all really Salvia lyrata. They are not very showy, and kind of weedy, so I pulled them all out, because I need the room. The trumpet vine and mulberry that I painted still aren't growing back yet. My neighbors at the old place cut down the Asian elms in their easement. Now I really want to cut down mine too. When I run out of room I can use the easment as a nursery bed lol.

Don’t all Sphinx cats have a little horn? My brain is so cluttered with plants and bugs. Could it be brown hooded owlet? Just remembered this on goldenrod.

That's it, a brown hooded owlet cat, and I think I looked at the basal foliage of the plant and it was goldenrod. The variegata seeds came in. I was looking for Prunella at the park but it's hard to see. I drove to the tallgrass prairie to see the Monarchs roosting, but there weren't any, only just a couple of them feeding. Everything should be done flowering, and turning brown in a few weeks.

Our weatherman said the leaf season will be later than usual (very beginning of November usually) because it’s so hot. Also will not be much of one because it is so dry. I am not ready at all for things to be done flowering. On the other hand, some things look so sad, it will be satisfying to just rip them out.

Similar looking milkweeds.

Asclepias viridis

Asclepias asperula.

Asclepias pumila.

Asclepias fascicularis.

I do have the green milkweed. Always blooms beautifully, but I never see seeds. Love the fascicularis, small leaves, but a real trooper. It also seems to spread out like something else. I have little ones popping up in a 6 foot radius right now.

That's nice it's self sowing.

https://www.growmilkweedplants.com/southcarolina.html

It’s an “airy” kind of plant, so it would not be a problem of them popping up. Same with the purple top verbena.

Asclepias longifolia and Asclepias hirtella are the same species. It goes by hirtella now.

Well, I can’t keep up with all these changes. Here I am waiting if somebody knows my mystery plant. Even this forum seems to be kind of slow.

Just got back from long, 4000 mil road trip last week. Did most of the Oregon Trail. Saw some interesting plants I don't see here. Lots of dry sage-brush country out there, and nary a tree in sight for long stretches.

But the trail itself is phenomenal. The history of it is fascinating. Six years after Lewis and Clark returned, it appeared there was no way to get across the Rocky mountains until an employee of Jacob Astor, Robert Stuart had to get back to New York by land in 1812. Along the way they discovered a 20 mile wide gap in the continuous wall of granite, situated in central Wyoming, called South Pass. The pass is so flat you can ride a bicycle over it. With mostly good water along its 2500 mile length, three hundred thousand emigrants left the safety of the United States to get to the west coast over a period of 20 years.

There are so many interesting land marks to experience today. The wagon ruts are still visible and some will be there for thousands of years.

Maybe some of you can id these, most taken at Ash Hollow in Nebraska. I have more in my camera to enter later.

a) Some kind of grass, Rattle Snake Master too.

b) Now I don't remember what was so interesting about this

c) White, low flower, late summer

d) the yellow leaves, not sure what that brown thing is either

e) Wyoming, and along dry roadsides everywhere all the way back to North Dakota. Invasive like Tansy in that respect.

I now have 8 inches of rain accumulated for the month of September 2019.

Sounds like a great vacation Dandy. I love traveling out west! Nice pictures. I love seeing all the interesting new plants also. Thanks for sharing! I was looking at your plants. I think the grass is Andropogon glomeratus, bushy bluestem. The white flower with the jagged leaves is an Oenothera, something similar to Oenothera coronoifolia. The plant with the strange reddish brown flowers looks like a Rhus, sumac, the yellow tansy looking thing, I have no idea. So is 8 inches a lot of rain for you? You didn't get hammered recently did you?

Iris, there was no basal foliage on your mugwort plant. If there were, I would have probably recognized it. They have different looking leaves on the flower stems. I grew sweet annie, A. annua once, and it went to seed, and I've been pulling out those seedlings every year for 15 years. Don't let yours go to seed!!!

Yellow flower looks like a wild buckwheat Eriogonum. There are a couple hundred species but similar to Eriogonum flavum. Did you see any wildflower meadows up in the mountains?

Looked like a nice trip Dandy.

I didn't have time to visit any natural areas on my trip, and the traffic was so bad I didn't want to add any extra stops. I guess I will end up ordering the oak from that nursery. My Elephantopus seeds looked ok, they are not in direct sun at any time during the day this time of year which probably helped.

I picked up some acorns in the yard yesterday and entertained my 2 year old for about an hour by showing her how to put them in a cup of water to see which ones sink and which ones float.

Thanks for the id's. Late September there is not a lot of flowering, and being in dry desert most of the time. So never ran across any alpine meadows, just grassy fields for the most part. We drove the Beartooth highway in Montana which was a real trip. A high plateau culminating at an 11,000 foot pass.

Dandy, this looks like a great trip! What’s going on in your garden now?

Skip, the acorn sinking game sounds so cute! Never too early to get them into gardening. Might turn into a great helper. You mentioned that your mystery goldenrod is blooming. Did you figure out what it is? What does it look like? My small well behaved ones with the more bluish leaves look like this

At this point I should keep everything that still looks so good in this weather. Don’t worry, Jay, still going to get the mugwort out before it gets seeds. There is a 30% chance for rain on October 7.

Iris, mine is Solidago rugosa based on feedback from NTP. Pics here https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5787687/backyard-plant I dont have any pics of the blooms yet. You should post pics of yours on there.

I probably should take some pictures. The link you provided a while ago to identify them said that it’s not that easy to tell them apart. I don’t think I qualify to get it right :) Got to say that the big (probably Canada) goldenrod is a lot busier than this one. It’s covered with bumble bees. Could be because it’s a bit further along and a large patch though.

I didn't think this place would be far, but here I am out in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in "Indiana"!

wild honeyvine

More pics of the remnants of the grand Kankakee marsh. A wetlands comparable to the Everglades that fed 20% of all bird species in North America.

I can't see all the leaves on your goldenrod Iris, but the flowers are unusual. They remind me of miniature wingstem flowers. I just started looking, but Solidago auriculata is s possibility?

Iris, S. caesia has the same flowers and more of a bluish color.

Great pictures, Jay! Glad you found your way back from the middle of nowhere! It all looks so well tended there. Going to take some pictures of the leaves tomorrow. Thought I put some up, but I just scrolled through this whole thread again and didn’t see it. Whatever it is, I would hate to get rid of it. Seems to do well in full sun and shade and is still alive in the parts it grows without any water.

There are 54 pandurata seeds. How is your plant Iris?

What plant? Ha ha. The seed I thought germinated was a weed, too. I still have a couple of seeds in the fridge. I am probably just going to dump them outside. Not hopeful this will ever grow in my yard.

I'll send you a plant. I like the furry seeds. The only milkweed seeds I still need are for viridiflora. I'm hoping Prairie Moon gets them back in stock or somebody else has them. Then there will be only 6 native milkweeds that I need, including the 2 Matalea vines. Today was my first time seeing a wild honeyvine. I couldn't find any seed pods on it. The yellow flower is Bidens cernua. I ordered seeds for it. I collected seeds from the mallows. They need a wet spot, so I'm going to scatter them at a lookout point by some pondsin the preserve right by here. I'm tidying up the area, and getting rid of some invasives in that spot. It's just a few days till I put in a seed request with Mountain Gardens for the Apios priceana. My fingers are crossed. Hopefully the bugs will pollinate this species. The skippers will be happy!

Did the plant you saved from being mowed make it? Since it says they hate to have the roots disturbed? I should look up some Fall flowering shrubs for dry, full sun. I am pretty sure I am loosing some in these areas. Also not sure about my bald cypresses. They are already 8 years old, but 6 of them are completely reddish brown by now.

The young panduratas already have deep roots, so when you dig them with a hand trowel it's hard to get enough roots. I rescued 4 plants. 2 are doing well, they have leaves and should make it through the winter. The other 2 lost their leaves. I'm leaving them and hoping they might return in the spring. This year at the old garden I added an Apios vine, the honeyvine, and now 2 pandurata vines. The wooly pipevine now has several suckers coming up. I want to introduce some of those suckers to the woods where I saw the pipevine swallowtails.

There is a lot of Cinna arundinacea growing in the woods. I haven't photographed it, but it's everywhere. I just found out it prefers shade. I'm definitely going to sow some.

Cinna is a cool big grass. Mine did eventually flop over abruptly. Were the ones in the woods in mass groups or just scattered individuals? Looks like a fun trip.

I checked my milk vetch for seeds but it looks like the critters got them first.

There is a hole in every single seed pod so something must really enjoy eating them.

I listened to this webinar posted in another thread https://youtu.be/TX1aDWu3S_s, and they talk about collecting, drying and storing seeds at one point. The speaker recommended paper bags instead of plastic/zip locks because of mold issues, so I switched all my seeds to paper. Some of the sassafras and blackgum seeds were already getting moldy, so I dipped them in a 1:14 dilute bleach solution, let them sit for a minute, then rinsed thoroughly with fresh water before putting them in paper bags. Thankfully I already have a bunch sown and these are just backups. I used paper lunch bags cut in half and taped shut.

Heres another fascinating podcast about ecotypes and seed collection. Good material for a commute or long drive http://www.thefieldguidespodcast.com/new-blog/2018/3/12/ep-26-dont-hassle-me-im-local-local-ecotypes-and-ecological-restoration

What's the history of your milk vetch. Did you grow them using seeds from Prairie Moon with innoculant? Did your plants bloom from seed the first year? How big did they get the first year. The cats that were eating the milkvetch weren't skipper cats, they were duskywing cats. I saw the female that layed the eggs. Do you have woodland sunflowers there? I'm going to broadcast those seeds in a few different part shade areas. They will hold the weeds back.

Milkvetch seeds from prairiemoon, innoculated, and wintersown in plugs trays. Grew in the plug trays all year and then planted late summer 2018. They flowered this year and spread a lot by rhizomes. They were way root bound and stressed by the time I planted them, maybe they would have flowered the first year if direct sown.

I haven't seen any sunflowers in or around the woods here. Too many deer I think.

Great pictures, Jay! You found false nettle, too! Didn’t you plant some in your garden? I am impressed you kept the Ipomoea alive, well half of them. All I have read says they really hate to have their roots disturbed, even when they are young. Here are the pictures of the leaves of the goldenrod.

With all the watering instead of weeding, some areas have gotten really wild. Jeez, how am I ever going to catch up?! The critters are happy, but who knows what weird plants are lurking in there?

I am going to have to look up the heart shaped nettle. If it’s common down here, it might make it’s way into my garden. Not that I am sure I would find it. Feels like you could hide a school bus in all this huge Canada goldenrod. At least I think that’s what it is. I always try to dig out a lot in Winter, but I am currently glad it is here. Since the guy mowed the property behind me. It would usually a beautiful yellow field now. Seems all the bees have to do with mine. Sad.

Looks like Quercus prinus/montana or Q. muehlenbergia. Thanks for pics of the Cinna.

Save me some sunflower seeds, which species is it? I got some fresh minty seeds off my Pycnanthemum incanum if you are interested.

Speaking of seeds, do these look ready on the Hop tree? Should I just snip them off and put them in an envelope to mail to Javi or get them out first? I figure it might be a bit of protection to leave as is? Some still look green.

Thanks, Jay! I will wait.

Hope you all had a great day! Read in the news today, that our local airport reported 0.13 inches of rain for the month of September. Didn’t even get that. Just came home from across the street, didn’t have a flashlight with me and stumbled onto the deer already raiding my bird feeder. Almost gave me a heart attack.

Now why was he calling screech owls? Good question about the ecoregion. Going to look up what it means. Still looking up the critter identified on the insect forum as green mantidfly. Weird but fascinating one. Cypress vines are busy :)

Great pictures, Jay! Ha ha, about the walnuts... when I was little, we carefully cracked them to get the halves, made little sails with toothpicks and paper and raced them on puddles by blowing on them. Good times :)

Wonder what that is. The sulphurs are just out in the open. One of my patches has been completely eaten. So I have been moving caterpillars around again. There were the cloudless and the little orange ones on there.

Nice pics. Plenty of walnuts falling off my trees here too. None as large as tennis balls. Got a heavy 20-30min downpour today, saved me from watering. I found some pignut hickory and shagbark hickory nuts the other day, they sunk when shelled which means likely viable. Planting them near the current black walnuts, since they are longer lived maybe they will replace the black walnuts someday.

Ecoregions are divided into 4 levels and are generally similar habitats. Jay posted the level 1 map, which is pretty vague, could include an Appalachian mountainside and a floodplain swamp even though the plants would be totoally different. Level 3 and 4 are more detailed and show places where similar plants grow. https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions

On second look maybe Jay didnt post level 1, but its the same idea. The EPA maps werent working on my phone but maybe on the computer you could get them to download.

Oooh, hop tree seeds! Thanks so much, Iris -- I'll take them however you wish to send them! :)

Sorry I've been out of touch, everyone. Have been vacationing in Cornwall, UK this past week with DD and her fiance, and have thoroughly enjoyed, among other things, the cool weather...ahhhhhh. Headed back tomorrow to the TX heat, but have loved this respite. We've gone on many hilly walks, and there are stinging nettles everywhere. We intentionally went during the off-peak season, but most of the flowers have faded -- still plenty left to enjoy, however. Have never seen so many bleeding hearts and giant, maroon/burgundy (!) hydrangeas. Blackberry bushes lined our paths. I'll post some pics when I have time.

DH is at home dutifully watering the plants and providing butterfly and hummer sightings. He had the fun task of releasing our final Giant swallowtail earlier this week. :)

Why are you targeting that Spermacoce glabra plant? Just like it, or is it a host plant? I see its in the same family as bedstraw (Gallium) and bluets, reminds me to get the Houstonia caerulea seeds out into trays ASAP.

Also in that family is Hamelia patens, firebush; do you grow that one Javi?

I tried growing the Hamelia patens before. Zone pushing again. Even in a protected area it didn’t work out. Looks like the Tersa Sphinx is fine with just using the buttonweed, and I have certainly enough of that. The deer have been cleaning out the bird feeders again. Looks like there are 2 groups, one with four, the other 5. No hosta left behind... they ate most of my asters, too.

Stay safe, Jay! The normal kind of buttonweed is such a tangle, the caterpillars are very well hidden. Unless you take out the black light at night (they glow) or come across them by trying to finally pull some of them. They didn’t touch my Pentas this year. Deer or rabbits did though :(

Your house isn’t flood prone, is it? The weather is really weird. Still hot and dry here. As you can see with my deer picture, even the night time temperature is not Fall like yet.

Button bush Cephalanthus occidentalis is listed as a host for the Tersa sphinx too, same family. Good luck with the storm Jay. Fall is in the air, already have sycamore leaves falling and accumulating in the driveway.

I have plenty of those. Going to plant a lot more since 9 of the 10 cuttings I took in Spring and just had in a glass of water rooted and grew well after being potted up. Only saw the very hairy, white caterpillars on them. Plenty of leaves falling here, too. But not in the good, Fall color kind of way. Love Sycamores and Tulip trees, but the leaves seem to stay forever on the ground. Maple and oak are hardly noticeable after a short time.

The suckering potential of Rhus copallinum

A nice Viburnum

And my backyard goldenrod

Jay-what is that nice Viburnum with V trilobum leaves, but with blue fruit?

Sigh...I just spent a bunch of time posting pics from our trip, and they're gone. I'll wait a bit to see if my post is working its way through the Houzz processes. It'll be frustrating if nothing posts.

Welcome home, Javi! Hope your garden did well without your hovering. Patiently waiting for the pictures :)

Thanks, Iris! The sun peered over the fence about half hour ago (while I was posting!!!!), and everything looks great...taller and bloomier. :) DH did such a fantastic job. First order of business will be to see if the lone Gulf frit cat I left on my potted P. foetida is still there -- I think it'll have been too soon for it to pupate.

Might want to check your milkweeds and such, too. I just found a couple of unexpected Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars.

Just took the quickest 'patrol' -- this morning's humidity feels more oppressive than usual...will need some getting used to again. I didn't see any eggs (though, I didn't do much leaf flipping), but did see a third instar Monarch cat crawling around...yay! The large milkweed bugs are back in force which, in and of themselves, are doing no damage. But I can see their nymphs have damaged several A. perennis pods (plump, green ones!). Speaking of which, my original bank of 4 perennis are still blooming up a storm -- really pretty to see.

There is a lot of flooding. The river is over its banks.

The canal overflowed and spilled downhill towards the river.

These were growing in the canal.

Goats

Phlox paniculata blooming now?

Large walnut

Osage orange.

Wingstem

Skip, did those Zizia aureas ever make it?

Nice pictures, Jay! Can’t believe you have so much rain. What are the goats doing there? Don’t know about Skips, but my Zizia aureas are looking great. Didn’t bloom though. A lot of the plants Skip said might be Symphyotrichum lanceolatum popping up. Or at least similar looking. Should probably really look them up before they are taking over.

These asters, S lanceolatum, are spreading all over the place, which is okay with me. The bees are loving it and there are pearl crescents everywhere. I also have some new volunteer wood aster in the back.

My Zizia plants are doing well, but the seedlings whithered.

I finally planted my agrimony seedlings, and a geranium that I started from seed. I pulled them out and dumped the whole tray with pine bark potting mix on top like mulch. Maybe some of the dormant seeds in there will come up. I put together the bottom frame for the second cold frame and leveled out the ground. That took most of my spare time today. I still have to plant the rest of the pipevine, and a straight species Heuchera I bought at a plant sale in the spring. Yes the poor thing has been in the pot all year but somehow still looks pretty good. Finally saw 2 black swallowtails this weekend too.

The loss of the edit function on this forum is really annoying, I have to delete and repost if I want to change something. Guess I should learn to proof read before hitting the submit button.

I didn't know everyone couldn't edit either. It's already caused me problems because I depended heavily on it . Are you saying the Zizia seedings that I sent withered? They grow fast in spring, and put on a lot of top growth that can make transplanting hard. I have the straight native Heuchera too. What was that plant called that is related to Heuchera but the seeds didn't germinate, is it Mitella or something. It's still raining after 72 hours. I wore my boots today. I had all the annuals in the front sutchered up with string and they all just flopped. So you have Zizia plants that you grew from seed? Have they flowered? Once they start flowering they will spread around pretty fast. My plant dropped most of its seeds before I could collect them. It's growing on a slope, so the seedling can help stop erosion. I have 3 small winter berries. How do you level out the ground?

The Zizia seedlings you sent whithered, yes, when it was raining for weeks on end this spring. I had the ones you sent in a bin of soil because I had no place ready to plant them. I wintersowed some, those died too. The Carex is still around and I planted the ephemerals around it after they went dormant. 2 bigger potted ones I ordered from toadshade in spring and planted a few weeks ago are doing good, they were flowering when they arrived. Yes Mitella diphylla, I should get more of those seeds.

Today I did a rough level by eye, by scraping the sod and top soil with a stirrup hoe, removing the grass and roots, and then raking the soil smooth with a bow rake. To do it more detailed, you would set up string levels at the perimeter of the area, then measure the distance from the string to the ground and dig until the distance is the same all around, then use a screed board to level it out. Your winterberries do alright in normal soil or do they need regular watering?

My winterberries are cultivars, so they probably don’t count. 2 Mrs and one Mr. Poppins. Lots of berries this year, obviously little rain and not watering very often.

Carex? The palm sedge? You got 2 big potted Zizias from toadshade? I thought you'd be doing the string thing. I was reading about Houstonia caerulea, and it likes thin sandy or gravelly, acidic soil. I could plant it in a sandy gravelly spot and add a soil pacifier. That's if I buy seeds. Vermont Wildflower Farm has seeds. I wasn't getting anymore, but Native American Seed has Clematis pitcherii and that's completely insane! I added some acidifier to the sand where I direct sowed some Tephrosia. The winter berries seem to be doing alright in normal soil. The one that was getting more sun did better. Are you going to sow seeds for it or what?

Yes and yes. I don't think the Houstonia is that picky about soil. I thought I read about adding it en masse to a lawn for early season flowers. I was looking into sowing the winterberries but its a double dormancy, if I sow them now they wont start to germinate until 2021, and then they grow slowly. Not worth the wait when I have american holly cuttings growing already.

Winter berries aren't as slow growing as American hollies. They can put on a couple feet in one year. I grew a few American hollies years ago, and they grew so slow that I got fed up and gave them to my neighbor. Where did you get your Houstonia seeds from, and how many? You could just direct sow some winterberry seeds and then forget about them. It's getting kind of late to be visiting any new places because all the plants are past their prime, but there are a lot of places around here that I haven't seen yet that are remnant prairies and wetlands. I'll start exploring in the spring. The Houstonia is in Rubiaceae. It's the hostplant for a moth, but it's not the tersa sphinx. I'm going to try to germinate more buttonbush seeds. I could possibly plant buttonbushes in back of the fence, once the weed trees are cut down. I thought of using prickly ash, but I think it's roots would be invading the rest of the garden. I have rue and hop tree. I wish I had the space to have a double dormancy bed and sow all them seeds in it.

You can start more winterberries from stem cuttings. I could plant a row of them behind the fence. There's a ditch that fills with rain there.

https://archive.triblive.com/news/garden-qa-winterberry-cuttings-beat-seeds/

https://www.facebook.com/391169714265035/posts/2301280826587238/?sfnsn=mo

Wow a Carex expert. Are you going to that? Im sure she will stress to NOT collect seeds or divisions from the rare plants.

I got the Houstonia off ebay in march, 5 packs of 40 seeds, and they have been stored dry in the fridge since then. The seller was in New Hampshire.

I'm seriously thinking of going to it considering all the rare species I can't find. I'm going to help out at a sand prairie tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some info I need. I think the Houstonia would be nice if mixed in with buffalo grass, Claytonia, Allium cernuum and Allium stellatum.

The way things are looking here is taking the fun out of working outside. Or out of planning what plants to add next Spring. It was 98 degrees, 20 above normal. Having the weather blues.

It’s not supposed to be leaf season for at least another month. Well, the Magnolia shouldn’t really have one in the first place.

It was that dry here around this time in 2017 and 2018. I was ready to start all over from scratch and use drought tolerant plants. The green trees in the background. Why are they still green, and why are certain trees a lot worse off than others? I hope the weather is more balanced out next year. That's the evergreen southern Magnolia? They grow at the southern tip of Illinois, but not up here.

Another 3+ inches of rain last night, puts me over 11 1/2 inches for September. Way too much. Would have like it in July.

I've been collecting seeds lately with hope of setting up a seed business over the winter. Maybe undercut some of the commercial entities. Just packed away some Horse Gentian. Will be collecting a big bunch of winter Berry soon. Have a ton of Solomon Seal to do tomorrow. I had to dig up a large patch of it that was invading my 'color' garden.

Some pics of my trip along the Oregon Trail.

Some kind of Sage in Wyoming

A liatris, on Scotts Bluff i think.

Nice pics Dandy! Did you ever collect any what's that yellow/orange flower in Boraginacaceae? Lithospermum? Talk about a mind freeze! What kind of SS do you have? Cleaning seeds is a lot of work. It just came to me. Hoary pucoon. Do you have seeds for that?