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05/25/2023 Thursday shenanigans and winecup looking

On the left is this year’s soil to bring the level up. To the right is last year’s winecups!
A baby two leaf senna in one of the caliche planters!
The guard flamingo is keeping a careful eye on Briar. Gotta keep her from squishing the Oklahoma penstemon.
Every night Gram wants to go past Briar in the hall. Every night she waits for her chance to slobber him. This only happens at night. It is now a ritual. She smiles. As soon as he attempts it and she slobbers him, then they saunter into the room together. Photos by Paula.

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05/26/2023 Friday assortment

Briar enjoys laying in the prairie among the primroses and englemann daisies.
Some of the grass in the new prairie (we’re calling it Leon’s prairie since it’s by Leon’s blackberry bushes) has turned out to be the native wild rye we seeded! Yay!
Yellow Coreopsis looking bright with the tiny purple Verbena halei and the starry pink widow’s cross sedum!
Shackleton had some thoughts.
Briar says “walkies please??” (We did go walkies.)
The showy evening primroses are looking lovely with their pale pink between the purple winecups in the back and the magenta Salvia greggii in the front. We didn’t even plant them on purpose, they were just in the soil Paula brought from the backyard berm.
Coreopsis provides a nice yellow contrast at the end of the Salvia greggii row.
More seedling winecups are coming up in the newer soil where we put seeds.
Gram says it’s hard to use a dichotomous key for plant identification when the only numbers you know are “hello?” And “Doggie”.
Shackleton somehow turned the pages and now says “I leave the identification as a trivial exercise for the reader.”
We planted one Winecup in a tall skinny planter. It has bloomed now.
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05/16/2023 promising candidates

This seedling is not something I recognize so I’m hoping it could be Bluehearts from Mom. I left other volunteer plants in as that species is hemiparasitic and does better with a host.
Possibly a silverleaf nightshade seedling!
Another possible silverleaf! Looks a lot like its congeneric cousin tomatoes’ babies.
Another baby Arkansas yucca!!! This one is in a bigger pot so hopefully we can keep it watered enough.
Two fern acacia seedlings from last fall came up!!
The winecups are really taking off!! Super pleased.
This adorable sweat bee is the first visitor I’ve seen so far to our Penstemon grandiflorus.
New mystery in the prairie!
Briar being innocent
Guard flamingo
One of our two plastic flamingos has been retired due to its new hobby of breeding mosquitoes. The remaining one has been reassigned to guard two Oklahoma penstemon that the dog keeps laying on.
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05/13/2023 what’s happening at Saxon Park

Maybe a Pediomelium sp blooming? There’s a lot right now! Very cute! Edit: Abby has kindly identified this as Psoralidium tenuiflorum.
Sensitive briars have adorable puffy pink flowers!
Baptisia australis blooming- few weeks ago it was all B. bracteata and this weekend we only saw the blue!
Only a quarter mile in and Briar demanded to lay on the wet earth in the shade.
A rough leaf dogwood starting to bloom.
Three views of a very pale showy evening primrose!
Ooh a dark center in a sun drop primrose—maybe that other less common species??
Nope it’s a flower beetle nestled deeply in the lemon yellow primrose flower!
The trail sides are covered with rabbits tobacco!
Another requested rest break by Briar dog.
Up the hill, Gaillardia suavis and Echinacea angustifolia (I assume) are blooming, starting to bloom, and finishing at various places!
We met a three-toed box turtle going on the path too. Briar has not met many turtles.
We saw a three toed box turtle! It was very intriguing but concerning to briar. She was cautious but also wagged.
Three views of the only wild Solomon’s seal patch I have seen. We saw them at this site last year.
Groundplum milkvetch (Astragalus crassicarpus) is has gone to seed. Some look a bit squished from the trail being mowed.

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05/13/2023 backyard checkup

Briar grazes in the prairie. Around her you can see the bloom of a prairie parsley and many showy evening primroses.
After her grazing, Briar laid down, right on top of one of the Oklahoma penstemon rosettes I’m pretty sure.
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05/05/2023 Lexington WMA quick visit

Oxalis violacea
Carrot leaf Lomatium now done
Hot dog already
Baptisia bracteata
Briar on a hill
Prairie parsley blooming
Salvia azurea leaves
Echinacea leaves
Mystery leaves
Oxalis violacea lives in sunnier spots than I expected!
Arnoglossum species buds
Arnoglossum farther along
I think butterfly milkweed
Calylophus primrose
Penstemon cobea buds
Briar enjoyed a big mud puddle then ran right towards us dripping wet.
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05/04/2023 big long soaking rain

We got 2.75” in less than 24 hours!
Missouri Fluttermill primrose baby survived pouring rain even under the rain barrel!
Left seedling is Winecup and upper right seedling is Astragalus crassicarpus!
Two possible yuccas in the green section.
Not a milkweed
Not a milkweed?
Maybe a milkweed
Known milkweed (probably viridiflora)
The skinny adult leaves of known milkweed. New book The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants by Diboll and Cox mentions many milkweeds first adult leaves are skinny even if the eventual adult leaves are broad. Either that or I got the species wrong.
One of two Blackfoot daisy survived earwigs and is now growing flower buds and a few new leaves!
Perennial coreopsis begins!
Briar was pretty miffed it rained HARD most of the day. So before our walk she curled up in disgust right on my big Liatris mucronata from home. Thanks.

The Mexican Sage from Judy is up!
A sedge?
Partridge pea
Oldplainsman
Mystery
Caliche planter babies
The tomatoes have gotten a bit sunburnt from past rain with sunlight after, so this time I flicked water off and put them in a less intensely sunny spot. Trying to get them hardened off for planting.
Like Briar, Shacks was disappointed by rain and not being out. Paula brought him some favorite juicy grass and he loved it.
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05/02/2023 leash walk and blooming

Hidden dog among englemann daisies and showy evening primroses.
Englemann daisy close up.
Briar was very pleased to escort Shackleton around the yard.
The Solomon’s seals by the dining room window are doing well, as are their colleagues around the yard.
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05/06/2023 lots growing and blooming

First tepary bean up along trellis!
Right in the middle of this picture is the brown coating of a green milkweed being pushed up as it takes root!
This is also probably a green milkweed, and it has two tiny adult leaves starting to push out between the seed leaves!
These seedlings are in the same pot so I think they are also green milkweeds.
Briar finds examination of seedlings boring but at least we are outside.
I’m not sure why but my hopeful globemallow suddenly died.
Here is a small seedling in the globemallow container. Maybe it is one? There are a lot of Euphorbias popping up too.
The prairie parsley is blooming! I saw a potter wasp on it but didn’t get a picture as I was distracted by a baby cottontail bunny running away!
I planted two species in this pot – small native Hypericum and an unknown pod with tiny seeds inside from a dappled light post oak/blackjack oak forest. Maybe agalinis? It bears watching.
The Venus looking-glass is blooming in the rock garden!
Another plant with narrower toothed leaves, milky sap, hairs on the veins, and square stems is growing with the Venus looking glass. Not sure what it will turn out to be! Edit 05/2023: another type of Venus looking glass!