Yeah actually it's been hotter and drier the last few years and I haven't seen the grape ferns the last 2 years. All the smaller moist-soil plants I was pulling off have disappeared too, Lobelia syphilitica, Iris versicolor, Asclepias incarnata, bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.
Its not looking too bad in some spots right now though

I went on like an 8 mile kayak trip down a river in the pine barrens yesterday. There were some amazing little meadows on the banks of the narrower sections of the river full of Rhexia virginica, Triantha, cranberries, Hypericum, etc. I didn't photograph some of the nicest spots because I didn't want to get my phone wet and I'm not a great kayaker so it was away in a plastic bag most of the day.

Skip, your kayak trip sounds like fun. I wasn’t able to see pictures. That’s a new hiccup since I usually am just not able to post more than one. How is your greenhouse going? It’s been hot here, but a couple of thunderstorms helped with the watering. The hackberries are really kind of disgusting by now with the wooly aphids. Everything under them is black and sticky.

How's everyone doing in here? My greenhouse (screenhouse?) is working pretty well to keep the plants watered. Everything is still alive despite my neglect and some things like Chrysopsis mariana, Euphorbia corollata, Eutrochium dubium, and Lobelia spicata are/were flowering in the plug trays in there. I collected some elderberries and beach plums recently. I just boiled down the elderberries with water and strained out the flesh and seeds, and ate some of the beach plums fresh. I sampled some of the early elderberries and didn't really like the flavor, it was like licorice and medicinal, the riper harvest is a little sweeter and more mellow. The beach plums are a little bland and some are bitter but not too bad.

I'm doing ok. My garden has grown out of control. I just need to make sure no plants get smothered. There are several Rudbeckia triloba vollunteers. I had a few Eutrochium fistulosum grow from seeds I scattered. I think my other Joe Pye Weed was maculatum. It always turned brown, so I moved it to a shadier spot.

I have regular Dalea purpurea again. I got 2 plants at a sale this year and one is blooming. Im experimenting to see if prairie plants will coexist with Buffalo Grass. Also a vollunteer Cowpen Daisy and Gaillardia aristata. I was able to grow and plant Verbena bracteata. It's not the most attractive verbena. It's good that it's an annual. The annual Verbena tenuisecta is much more attractive.

My Chrysopsis mariana. I have 2 plants and I gave the other plant the chealsey chop and it never grew back afterwards. I think it's still alive.

Asclepias subverticillata. Horsetail Milkweed. I have only see 1 Monarch Butterfly this year. I haven't had any caterpillars eating the milkweeds.

I have this grass that looks nice, but I have no idea what it is? Im waiting for it to bloom. It's in a spot where I want to have shorter natives that don't like taller competition. This grass seems to large to stay here. If I was better with keeping plants labeled, I wouldn't have this problem.

My native Bleeding Heart is a repeat bloomer. Somehow Creeping Charlie got into my yard from the neighbors.

Glad your greenhouse is working well for you, Skip.

Jay, pictures of your garden are always looking wonderful. Not at all overgrown by anything.

The false asters in my yard are taking over the world. Not sure what to do about it. It’s been awfully dry, lost some plants even though all I am doing is watering. I think I am giving up on the red lobelia. Tried for years in different locations, but they never last more than two years. The purple one is looking great.

Army worms are having a great year. Everybody around here seems to be freaking out about big, dead patches in the lawn.

Lots of milkweed tussock moth caterpillars on the yellowing common milkweed. It’s not looking good, but the caterpillars don’t seem to mind. Have a bunch of saddleback caterpillars. My husband brushed against a tiny one. He was not a happy camper. Saw the first Joro spider in my yard today. Was just a matter of time for them to show up.

We have some of the big silk moth caterpillars around. Saw an adult Imperial moth at the entrance of our subdivision. Made a nice addition. So much to the adding of native plants that was discussed at a meeting though.

https://youtu.be/FJdpt2x57BI?si=ZZpWdwgEFIPRMs5S

Prairie Preacher

In what type of soil have you been growing the Cardinal Flower Iris? They like wet soil, like marshes and streamsides. I wonder if they would do better in your bog garden?

https://prairiebotanist.com/2024/08/29/conservations-most-pressing-questions/#like-101048 The prairiebotanist is Dan Carter, he used to be here at gardenweb briefly.

My native Lathyrus species never grew well, and I just noticed this Carolina Vetch in the above link. It's hosts a few butterfly and moth species, and it only reaches 2 feet tall, and it blooms in spring. Wouldn't you know it, noone offers seeds or plants of it.

None of my 6 Running Buffalo Clover seeds have germinated.

Vicia caroliniana

Carolina Vetch.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/vicia-caroliniana/

Iris you should rip out the annuals and plant a bunch of purple top grass and purple love grass, maybe some flowers too. Lol

My cardinal flower was looking really good until today.... Then the pink-washed looper moth caterpillars showed up

I mowed a path through the meadow and planted 6 Spiraea tomentose and 6 Spiraea latifolia. Next Ill plant a dozen Eutrochium dubium.

Wow Skip, the caterpillars really did on job on your Cardinal Flower! I saw a Monarch Caterpillar on a common milkweed today. I killed a huge Asian mantis. I made sure it was the invasive species and not the native Carolina mantis. I planted 3 Filipendula rubra a couple weeks ago. Id still like to grow the native Spirea at some point. Id like to list and count all the native species Im growing. It's nice to see them in my own yard, rsther than driving long distances. There's a big empty pot in the neighbor's yard, and a Showy Goldenrod from my plant's seeds is growing in it. I have 4 Eutrochium fistulosum plants that bloomed in the front. They were from seeds I scattered. I think that's enough of that species. Im still trying to get an idea how to best use the grasses. I thought Little Bluestem might work with shorter plants that don't like competition, but now I think it should be grown with the taller plants instead. It's hard trying to remember all the different species of grasses and sedges when they aren't flowering.

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2024/09/savanna-blazing-star-stories-examples.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawFHTG9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSHJ-n1su16jlcTol0FqNMmZazVDET-UlqWkleshVXtDXLxReuKJVYDQOw_aem_y4zuavyHkBZm0cRYp6BPMA&m=1

Skip, things are looking great! Jay, I am admiring your talent of telling any grasses apart.

Well, lost my last dog. Loosing a bunch of plants with the lack of rain. Might get some with the next tropical system, but I am currently really lacking the spirit of things. The false asters are doing great though and these huge patches are busy with critters. Babysitting a bunch of caterpillars for my daughter, keeps me busy :)

Sorry about your dog, Iris. Hoping you are okay after the hurricane. Found a gem today along a walking path at a local park. Very excited to try to grow out a few of these berries.

Seems nobody is here, but I thought I check in real quick. We are feeling very fortunate after Helene. Did most of the yard clean up we are going to do ourselves. 3 trees are going to have to wait for a tree company whenever they get to it. A kind neighbor pushed a huge branch of the driveway, so there is no hurry. Still plenty of trees to be seen on houses, so this should be priority. We did get power back after a good 2 1/2 days, but the neighbors on the other side of our road still don’t have theirs back a week later. At least we have city water in our subdivision, plenty of people (including our veterinarian’s house) are on wells. It’s just all very heartbreaking. It looks like the native plant nursery in NC where my spice bushes in Spring came from is 90% destroyed. To keep this post with native plants.

Edited. Thank you, Skip. It was really for the best for the vet to not wake up Zoey when he saw in the scan how bad the tumor on her tongue was. Given her age, and the other problems, I was against even attempting surgery. But she was my husband’s girl.

Was there a lot of flooding in your area Iris? I collected some Doll's Eyes seeds a few yearss ago. Ive never seen any seedlings.

Symphyotrichum laeve

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum

Ionactis linariifolia, Schizachyrium scoparium and Symphyotrichum sericeum

Symphyotrichum sericium, Silky Aster

New England Aster, Boltonia and Brown Eyed Susans.

Jay, the yard handled the rain surprisingly well. But I got “only” eight inches, and don’t live next to a river. The houses across the street still don’t have their power back. Schools here in Greenville County are going to open back up on Wednesday with modified bus routes.

Asters are blooming here, but I don’t know all of them. Bluecurls have spread nicely, but they are not that easy to notice in some places. It looks messy, but the pollinators don’t care. And the first frost isn’t that far away.

It looks like hurricane Milton will only effect Florida. I hope the first frost is a few weeks away.

I found a new aster that I want to grow. It's native further south of Illinois. Symphyotrichum phlogifolium. It's about as nice as the Georgia Aster. Nobody sells seeds or plants. I'm looking for seeds for Carex plantaganea. It must be a big seller.

Symphyotrichum phlogifolium.

I found a new nursery online that offers a few rare plants.

https://hawhoney.com/

I collected some seeds today. Big Bluestem, Splitbeard Bluestem and Little Bluestem. I collected a few Cirsium discolor seed pods, but they were full of frass from tiny little caterpillars.

Pink Muhly Grass, Muhlenbergia cappilaris. I have 1 plant and it's not as spectacular as this photo. There's also a M. cappilaris with White Flowers called White Cloud.

Muhlenbergia cappilaris White Cloud.

I need to go back and look at this grass again. It's flowers look like Aristida oligantha, but the wider, horizontal leaved don't go with Aristida oligantha. I like Aristida species because the flower are so cool looking. Aristida oligantha is an annual. The only Aristida seeds for sale are Aristida purpurea. I tried growing Aristida purpurea from seed twice with no germination. I'm thinking the seeds were bad?

Aristida oligantha

Aristida oligantha.

Aristida purpurea

Aristida purpurea

Split-beard Bluestem

I thought this grass might be Japanese Stilt Grass, but it's a native Muhlebergia schreberi.

Muhlenbergia schreberi.

Festuca rubra. The rhizomatous variety. I want to replace all the Kentucky Bluegrass with native red fescue and buffalo grass, and msybe the M.schreberi too.

That’s a pretty aster. Of course you find something that’s hard to find. There will be a low temperature of 39 next week. Yikes. Thanks for finding a new nursery to check out. I bookmarked it to get to it later. I still have a bunch of stuff in pots I need to find space for. I have a couple of the pink Muhly. Maybe one of them wants to be a white one. There is one sprig in the middle that doesn’t belong.

We dragged an awful lot of branches to the curb. The county said they are going to pick up storm debris. Who knows when. The tree service said they are still going to be busy for weeks, so we cut and cleaned up to make it look somewhat presentable. Curbside doesn’t count since just about everybody has piles of branches laying there.

What kind of little violet might this be? The eaves don’t look like any of my violets though. I left it in a pot to see what it is. Didn’t think it would bloom like that.

Also think the carpenter bees are suicidal. What are they all of a sudden doing with the pitcher plants?!

I looked at all the Viola species that are native to South Carolina and none of them match your's Iris. I can show it to other people if you get clearer pics of the leaves, stem, stipule and flower. I just ordered Cunila originoides and Aristida purpurea seeds. The seeds I have now are Penstemon cobaea, Colinsia verna, Astragalus canadensis, Oenothera macrophylla, Symphyotrichum praealtum, Diarrhena obovata, Echinacea paradoxa, Panicum oligosanthes, Paspalum setaceum, Actaea pachypoda, Celastrus scandens, Gentianopsis crinata, Osopryum biternatum, Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium, Salvia azurea, Sisyrinchium campestre, Symphiotrichum prenanthoides, Symphyiotrichum turbinellum, Festuca subverticillata, Phlox glaberrima var interior, Arabis glabra, Asclepias hirtella, Asclepias viridis, Baptisia bracteata, Brickellia eupatorioides, Callihoe triangulata, Cirsium discolor, Capnoides sempervirens, Echinacea pallida, Gentianella quinquefolia, Heracleum Maximum, Liatris scariosa var nieewlandii, Lobelia inflata, Pedicularis canadensis, Phryma leptostachya, Gillenia stipulata, Nabalus albus, and Anaphalis margaritacea. I should order some Oxalis violacea and Silene virginica seeds. Prairie Moon is out of Oxalis violacea seeds.

Im trying redwing milkweed one last time from seed. There's a place selling Oxalis montana tubers. Ive always liked it, but it' not native to my area like Oxalis violacea. This groundcover plant is native and can be used between stepping stones.

Oxalis montana. They are short and can't handle taller competition. That's how I list mu O. violacea plants. Id like to grow Oxalis illinoensis too. It has yellow flowers with a red throat. Prairie Moon is sold out of Oxalis violacea seeds and tubers.

Linderna grandiflora.

Oxalis illinoensis

Wow, Jay. That’s a long list of seeds! And a lot for me to look up. There is a lot of wood sorrel all over my yard, but it’s probably the non native, creeping one. I haven’t paid too much attention. Other than it’s edible :)

The mystery violet currently doesn’t have any blooms. Also looking kind of wilty.

We didn’t have a drop of rain since Helene. And this has been a month ago.

Found a little anole on my window today. Guess he came in with a houseplant. I don’t get it. They were all washed and scrubbed with soapy water. Thankfully it was 80 degrees today, so I didn’t feel bad about taking him outside. Hopefully this was the last surprise of this kind.

The carpenter bees are still hanging around the pitcher plants, but I guess they chew their way out if they can’t make it out any other way.

Can’t say I have any concrete plans for the yard for next year. A lot of things would need thinning out. I did plant some of the stuff I had standing around.

1. It is a lot of seeds Iris. Some are seeds that I didn't have luck with in the past, like the False Rue Anemone, Brickellia eupatoroides, Collinsia verna. Silene virginica. Some are plants that grew for me and then dissapeared like the Cirsium discolor, and Phryma leptostachya. Some of the milkweeds are hard to get established. I've had problems with Ascepias hirtella. It never returns in the spring. I'm trying to grow Running Buffalo Clover right now. There is only 1 tiny seedling so far. How did your Buffalo Clover and Carolina clover do? Do the bees really chew holes in your pitcher plants?

I'm getting seeds for the fertile diploid Apios americana. I grow the northern triploid race that is sterile. The sterile race is more cold hardy than the fertile race. Does everyone else still have their Potato Beans? What's the situation with everyones Ipomoea pandurata? Is anyone growing Goldenseal? Anyone still have their Asclepias variegata?

My Buffalo clover did really well. The Carolina one did not. This just withered away. I have been trying for 2 hours to add a picture. This website is not working for me.

Do you have any collected Teifolium reflexum seeds Iris?

Jay I'm glad to see you're still at it trying to grow a whole bunch of seeds. I have a pretty short list this year and still have a bunch of stuff I didn't get around to planting, but that's all I can handle at the moment. Hope you have luck with your sowing this year.

My pandurata grew this year and was green but never flowered. My Asclepias variegata didn't come back this year, it seemed ok last year, maybe there's a long shot chance it's just dormant. I did collect a lot of Asclepias purpurascens seeds off my two plants, which were from different nurseries, so hopefully they cross pollinated and made viable seeds. I've never grown goldenseal. My Apios tubers never grew much and disappeared after the first year, I think they need more moisture and sun than what I gave them. I'd like to get more of them, maybe I could grow them down by the street now that the power company hacked up my oak tree and let a whole bunch more sunlight in. I collected a ton of Agalinas flava seeds off that plant that randomly popped up my fence, it produces a ton of seed and they were flying all over the place when I was harvesting, so I see how it could spread around.

I caved to my wife and planted a bunch of Siberian Irises that she's been begging for. I don't think they're invasive or harmful, but I'm not planning to water them or anything so if they don't survive, then I can say I tried and move on to different native plants. It's been super dry, we got like a 1/4 inch of rain after Helene but other than that it hasn't rained in like 2 months. Random wildfire are popping up even in North Jersey where it doesn't normally burn.

Iris I would be amused to find an anole in my house, could be much worse critters breaking in.

Skip, Im not familiar with Agalinis flava? Ive collected and scattered thousands of Agalinis seeds and none have germinated. They are hemiparasitic and need host grasses. In the past I wanted to grow Siberian Iris until I decided to go totally native. Ive spent hundreds of dollars on Asclepias variegata seeds and tubers that never made it. Only 1 plant made it to flowering, and then dissapeared over the winter. Their natural range is as far north as the very southern tip of Illinois. Jeff Kerlie is selling variegata tubers for $60 now. That's too expensive, and since all the other tubers I bought from him never made it, I wonder if they werent in the best condition when I recieved them. Agalinis seeds dont fly, there's no pappus? Thats excellent that your purpurascens made seed pods. My lone purpurascens plant had bloomed for the past 2 years, but never made seeds.

Photos from Somme Prairie.

Oh I meant to write Aureolaria flava. You're right the seeds don't fly, but they spill out of the seed heads and go all over the place when the plant is bumped into, I could see them getting into some cat or raccoon fur, or being moved by water. Not that there are any streams nearby. Or maybe they were just in the soil seed bank from a long time ago, I double dug this planting area when I first planted the purple top grass, common milkweed, and wingstem a few years ago. I scattered partridge pea and Rudbeckia hirta seeds in there too so it could have been a contaminant from those seed packs, potentially. I started some of those Gentianella quinquefolia from seed and planted them a few years ago, but they didn't return the following year. Maybe I'll try that one again, probably have some seed left over somewhere.

I picked some Hibiscus moscheutos off the roadside, those are going into my wintersow pots this year too, to be planted by the road. I'm glad I picked them because somebody mowed them all down a couple weeks ago. I really don't understand the compulsion to mow, trim, and spray everything even when there is tons of clearance between the road and the tree lines.

Skip, Aureolaria is hemiparasitic on oaks. I dont think Ive seen Aureolaria ever. You should plant the seeds where they can connect to the oak roots.

Jay, I didn’t collect any of the clover seeds. I am hoping it reseeds itself. It has plenty of room to do so.

My pandurata managed to have one bloom this year. It’s still not looking like much, the deer are not helping at all.

Skip, I have plenty of the Iris. They are pretty hard to kill. Hope your wife is going to enjoy them. They don’t really add much value for the pollinators it seems, but I did have some caterpillars eating the leaves. I have mints and all kinds of other things growing in between them, so they don’t really take any space away. How is your greenhouse going?

Ha. Maybe the picture issue is fixed? This is a carpenter bee making it’s way out.

Iris, well hopefully the irises add the pop of color during the time my wife thinks it is lacking. The greenhouse is good, I might add some more wire mesh around the base because the chicken wire is no obstacle to the the chipmunks. I never got around to getting the gravel delivered for the floor, that'll be next.

Iris, could you try to look at my profile on facebook? They are blockibg me for going against their community standards. They are punishing me for telling the truth. I can't use messenger either.

Henry Eilers has passed away. He was a brilliant botanist and a kind soul.

❤️‍❤️❤️

Jay, your Facebook page looked fine. It didn’t work to send you a message from there though. Still didn’t have frost here. The Bidens Alba is a rockstar. And I am still not certain where it is really native. Was the Rudbeckia “Henry Eilers” named after him? I have one.

Oh! A new sunflower! Nice. The deer did a number of all kinds of them in my yard this year. Much fewer blooms. Even the swamp sunflowers didn’t put on their usual show Looks like there is finally a real freeze this weekend Not that I like the cold weather, but it is really late in the year. Everything is looking tired, except for the Bidens Alba. Happy Thanksgiving!

It's in the teens here, and there's some snow. I got some Buffalo Clover and Carolina Clover seeds. There's a really nice Virginia Clovers. My elderberries are sprouting in the coldest part of winter. Im going to cut them all the way to the ground, and they'll still grow to 8 feet tall and bloom. This is one of the blue curls here, Trichostema brachiatum.

Starflower, Lysimachia borealis.

Thanks for checking in, Jay! Can’t say I am too motivated to think about adding new plants. I am just too cold to do much most of the days currently. And if I do, it’s not much fun since it involves trying to get the thorny blackberries in check. There is an awful lot to do before the growing season starts again though. The County still didn’t get around to picking up the tree debris from Helene. Kind of wonder if it is going to happen. Never see any crews out while driving around.

I tried growing raspberries a few years ago, and they immediately started taking over. I get my arms sliced up from blackberries every year. The purple flowering rasberry is nice. I still don't have a native Rosa species.. Setigera is pretty, but it would swallow my yard and house. It's way too cold to do anything outside. Im planning on growing a couple plants in Rosaceae. Prairie Cinquefoil, Drimocallis arguta, and Geum aleppicum. I pull out most of the Geum canadense because it's weedy and not very showy.

Drymocallis arguta, Prairie Cinquefoil. It likes full sun and dry gravelly soil.

Geum aleppicum.

Joey Santore visiting Goose Iland prairie, which is close to me.

https://youtu.be/VyPKHLJHQtA?si=f_huDpdWZwqSqajb

Goose Lake Prairie, July 14th 2023

Jay hope those clovers work out for you, and the blue curls and starflower. There are some raspberries trying to take over certain areas of my yard, theyre in the running for the most painful plants to deal with in my yard, the black locust and Osage orange are in there too but I think the raspberry has more thorns low down on the stems. I have seen a lot of that purple flowering raspberry in the Catskills, so I'm guessing it likes it a little on the cooler side. I have a bunch of rose family plants but no roses. That reminds me, I wanted to try some Agrimonia species again. I winter sowed some stuff on new years day. I'm looking forward to freshening up part of the meadow and other areas next year, although I feel like I'm going to have to put up like stakes and ropes around the gardens because now the dog likes to go wading into them.

Iris sorry to hear they didn't pick up your brush yet, I hope they get it together soon. Did you get hit with the snow storm on Monday too? It been brutally cold here this week

It looks like the worst weather was in New Jersey. It's supposed to snow more here. I ordered Trichostema brachiatum yesterday. It was from a nursery in the UK, but the seeds and shipping costs were reasonable. The Mentzelia nuda seeds were from Colorado. That place sent me a bonus packet of Small Leaved Globe Mallow, Sphaeralcea parviflora. They are a western species, so it will be a trial to see if it's winter hardy here. I ordered a plant of Sphaeraclea coccinea long ago, but it wasn't winter hardy. I've been trying to source Carex plantaginea seeds or plants, and I found the seeds being offered at Jellito. I ordered a packet, and also white, alba Sisyrinchium angustifolium, and white, alba Viola sororia, and Viola pedatifida. They have seeds for the Pinelands Swamp Lily Hellonius. I found seeds for Cudweed, Gamochaeta purpurea. Noone sells seeds for the 2 buttonweeds, Diodia virginica and Hexasepalum teres. Ive seen the Rough Buttonweed, Hexasepalum at the sand prairies. Noone offers native Spermacoce seeds either. A couple Asian Spermacoce species are for sale, but they are banned here. There are a couple observastions for Spermacoce verticillata in my county. I want to have host plants for the Tersa Sphinx Moth.. They use plants in Rubiaceae.. Im trying Galium boreale. It will be nice to have a Galium species that is better behaved. Years ago I tried growing the blue flowered bedstraw. I had enough Cleavers last year to fill up a king size mattress. Im not sure Tersa Sphinx caterpillars will use Galium? I have Button Bushes that are in Rubiaceae. Pentas are used by the Tersa. Most lawn and garden centers sell dwarf, hybrid Pentas that butterflies and hummingbirds can't see. Skip, did you have any luck growing Hedeoma pugiloides or Phryma leptostachya? I'm trying the Phryma again, and the Trichostema brachiatum is an annual like the Hedeoma. The only other shade annuals I have are Aunt Lucy and Clearweed. All my Cunila oreginoides plants were smothered by Bush's Poppy Mallow. Im starting more Cunila, and Ive wiped out most of the Callirhoe. Im replacing the C. bushii with Callirhoe pyramidalis, which is locally native.

Callirhoe triangularis

Galium boreale. The blue bedstraw is Asperula.

Frasera caroliniensis. Can take up to 15 years to bloom and then dies. Native.

Swertia cordata. An annual. From the Himalayas.

Skip, the County did come by to pick up the tree debris. I was actually very impressed. Just a few twigs left over. Just in time for the snowstorm that didn’t happen. Stared to snow, but after that just some ice rain. Just enough to look pretty, no damage. Need to watch the weather for next week, but looks the snow is going to happen at the coast for now. It’s going to get awfully cold though. I can’t wait for Spring. But at least the hornets nest we have been avoiding all the time is done with.

Jay, the 2 live plants of the Frasera caroliniensis I managed to get didn’t make it. Should have done some more critter protection. Nor sure I want to do things with this long of a waiting time anymore.

Edited to say that a local rescue was asking for urgent fosters to get the dogs into warm homes during this cold. So yesterday morning, my husband and I picked up two tiny terriers of some sort. Awfully cute, bonded pair. We never had small dogs like that in the house. One of them started following me around like a shadow. It’s a bit of a problem since I am worried he is going to dash out the door whenever I go in and out.