My Thermopsis plants have buds. It's hard planting anything when it's so hot. I should start early and then work later.

Animals can be a challenge. I had to replant my heuchera multiple times last year and put a couple bricks around it because the ground hog kept digging it up.

It is hot and humid here too, but I just go out for an hour at a time and plant whatever is ready to go in the ground.

Here are some pictures from our field trip.

From Mississippi. A hybrid between Asclepias rubra, red milkweed, and Asclepias lanceolata, few flowered milkweed.

Love your ninebark, Skip. I tried growing one once. It just withered away. Jay, this looks like a fun and educational field trip. Hope it wasn’t too hot. Well, “weeds” are blooming here.

I was just looking at that horsenettle Iris. Its listed as a noxious weed in a lot of places but seems to have some wildlife and pollinator value. I see that plant a lot at the parks. I have tons of pokeweed at the back of my property too.

Jay, what was that habitat with the milkweed like? Dry, sandy and open?

It was sandy and dry where the amplexicaulis were growing. Floyd said that's what they prefer. I'm letting a couple poke weeds grow too. I saw some last year the size of trees. I don't mine to get that big. It was very hot, and it was hard walking over logs and through a swamp with sink holes. I was starting to overheat. There aren't any benches in the middle of the swamp. The downy sunflowers were everywhere.

I am surprised how the deer’s taste changes each year. Last year they ate every single pokeweed down to nothing. Hardly a nibble so far.

I wonder if the plants adapt to make more anti-herbivory chemicals. I read or heard on a podcast of a plant reacting to deer saliva to make more repellent. They haven't touched my sunflowers this year either. I think pokeweed depends on water for its size. Mine grow huge in June with the residual groundwater from spring, and then wilts and yellows when it gets hot and dry later in summer.

I wonder if I'll ever be able to let my devil's walkingstick out of it's cage. There are millions of morning glories everywhere. It was beautiful for a little while until the sun came out. The only 2 stalks on my Asclepias tuberosa both broke off. I need to start putting seedlings into bigger pots.

I planted out some more stuff yesterday, american bellflower and more Anaphalis. The plug trays are nice when they work.

Those plants are a nice size. My Gnaphalium is little. Another hot, dry day.

It was hot here, too. Remember I planted some veronicastrum cultivars last Spring and they all got eaten? I have a bloom this time around on one.

The Veronicastrum is nice. Is it 'cupid' or 'fascination'.

It’s the fascination. The Cupid and the straight one have been eaten.

I was moving pots around and wouldn't you know there are skipper cats eating my Apios priceana seedlings. There are 3 that have germinated.

Ha ha, that’s what you planted them for, right?

Thats not fun, Jay. I would be disappointed if some cats showed up and ate all my new milkweed seedlings, or any of my new plants. Im fine with established plants getting damaged, just not much-anticipated new plants and seedlings.

I planted my Dirca palustris today, figured they would do better in the ground in the shade garden vs. living in those tiny pots on my deck. I wonder how many years it will take them to reach a noticeable size

I have 3 straight species local ecotype Veronicastrum virginicum plugs on the way, as well as 3 Hamamelis virginiana plugs. At the end of the day ecotypes probably dont matter that much but it feels good getting the local stuff.

I'm going to move the cats to the Apios americana vines.

I am going to have to look up what a Dirca is. Thank you all for continuing to educate me. I found this cute little plant growing at the base of a fleabane today. Any idea what it is?

Iris, It looks a lot like Solidago ptarmicoides/ Oligoneuron album, but I need better pictures of the leaves. The flowers look great. The upland, white goldenrod is supposed to have between 10 and 25 ray petals. Your plant has only 6 or 7. I relocated the 2 priceana leaves with the skipper cats.

What about Sericocarpus asteroides?

This is the only picture I took of the leaves.

Save seeds, Iris!

Edit:

I will take a closer look at the leaves. Just did get a reply from Reeseville about where my Amorpha nitens are. Says the seeds failed to germinate this Spring and he will try again in Summer. Now that’s a bummer!

Sorry to hear that Iris. I had another order coming from them, but if it doesn't arrive that's ok. I have enough other plants to worry about. It was 100 yesterday and feels like 95 now. There's supposed to be a big cool down on the weekend.

It was hot again here, too. I was about to drag the water hose around, but it’s raining nicely now. The leaves on my plant don’t look at all like the one in your picture. Here it is.

Time for bug pics? I saw a skipper moving fast before too, probably silver spotted.

Love bug pictures! Still not sure if the bee I saw was that Asian Giant one. It looks like it to me (and my ID app). I posted it on the insect forum. The Japanese beetles are back. Now these I could really do without. They love evening primrose. Do you guys have them?

Beautiful pictures. Duh, I didn't even consider that there were more Sericocarpus species. S. linifolius has matching leaves, I think. There's a system moving through now and dropping a lot of rain. I planted some milkweeds today, variegata, ovalifolia, purpurascens, hirtella.

Jay, stay safe! Our weather man mentioned the Chicago area with getting high winds.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sericocarpus+linifolius&client=ms-android-verizon&tbm=isch&prmd=mvin&sxsrf=ALeKk013ia7LlPaOb_ZPJKIn9n1x4TEKvA:1591748104579&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjumuHi-_XpAhUjRjABHZo1DN0Q_AUIFCgD&biw=320&bih=563&dpr=3.38

There seems to be some variation in the ray petals where they attach to the disk.

Thank you, Jay! This might be it! The whole plant is at about 13 inches, so that would work.

Jay what Packera is that?

It's Packera glabella. Only a couple P. aurea seeds germinated and they are tiny and barely growing. I have a few more glabella volunteers this year.

Really odd weather today. A lot of showers that lasted just a few minutes, followed by the sun making it steamy. Not bad weather to get some more of my potted plants in the ground. Got surprised by sudden rain a couple of times though. Some thunderstorms this evening. On the bright side, this weather confused my spicebush cat, so I could have a look at it during the day.

Nice caterpillar.

Anyone else have their Veronicastrum break and fall over? Cant tell if its rot or maybe borers. It was just starting to develop flower stalks. This is the purple one "Lavender Towers"

Skip, most of mine don’t get the chance. They get eaten off. Kind of odd that this is all at the same height.

My Veronicastrum are ok, but they have broken in the past. I don't see any buttonweed coming back. Maybe I collected it after they seeded.

That’s a pretty Oenothera picture! I have two kinds of evening primrose. Didn’t plant any of them. This one is driving me insane. Not blooming yet. There are hundreds of seedlings all over the place. And yes, I know. Cypress vines.

That Oenothera is looking full Jay. I planted an Oenothera biennis this spring, I looked at it one morning and it had what looked like white foam all around the lower leaves. I sprayed it off with the hose mist nozzle, and the whole portion of the plant above the white stuff fell off. I checked on it a few days later, something dug a hole next to it exposing half the roots, I filled it back in. Next day the rest of the plant was gone. I see a green nub growing from the remaining bit of stalk near the ground, maybe it will grow back.

The hollow stem Joe pye weed is going for it this year. I am going to enjoy seeing the flowers sticking up from the other side of the fence later.

Foam as in spittlebug? But that’s usually not doing anything. I never had any success with Joe Pye weed.

Yeah it did look like pictures of that spittlebug foam. Maybe the plant fell apart for other reasons, it was never really thriving.

There was a spittle bug on my bronze fennel. I just left it alone and there is no damage. I like the Oenothera fruticosa a lot more than biennis. I've been trying to grow O. pilosella. I sowed some macrocarpa seeds too. It used to be called missouriensis.

New this year.

Jay-the Thermopsys iooks nice but is going to get huge eventually, as in 4' wide and 8'' tall. Keep that in mind. I've been dividing mine and moving it around. It won't bloom for another few weeks yet.

My seedlings are coming around nicely, but my germination time frame ends in about 3 more weeks. After that they need to wait til next year. I got some surprise Callirhoe this week that were seeded last year. So there is still hope.

Zach's Penstemons germinated nicely and will go into the garden soon. I ended up with way too many Elderberry seedlings this year. Reminds me of my phenomenal success with Aralia racemosa five years ago. I had hundreds of plants to deal with. But they are scattered all over and doing well on their own. I will find lots of places for Elderberrys.

8 feet tall? I already am noticing some taller plants that need moving. My Verbena hastata is shading out the blue flag and Culver's root. And that monstrous silphium or whatever it is keeps getting bigger. I think it would be hard to move. I think silphiums have deep roots. Do you have bracken ferns up there Dandy?

Which Silphium is it? Do you grow the S. terebinthinaceum? I didn't know the Thermopsis got that large, I should move mine if that is true, that would be bigger than Baptisia and Joe pye, and even some shrubs I have.

I planted a couple witch hazel plugs today, quick and dirty.

Probably as large as Joe Pye. I now think Silphium perfoliatum should never be in a formal area. Culvers root will get 4; or so. Bracken Fern is very common here.

I just started a new thread. This one was about 100 comments.