Tag: milkweed

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06/06/2023 milkweed revives!

Something completely chopped off one of the two baby Asclepias viridiflora in the rainbow garden. I was pleased to find it is growing back! As of today (06/11/2023) it has grown another pair of leaves too.
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06/11/2023 roots

Unless you’re taking a herbarium specimen or moving stuff in the garden, we often don’t see how deep some native plant roots are. Today I helped two friends rescue plants from a remnant prairie that is about to be dozed and built on. (We dug with permission.)

A Winecup had the taproot I’ve read about but it was concentrated near the surface. This seems likely to live.
I figured this big milkweed has a very deep root so we didn’t try it.
Briar sat in the shade of encroaching cedar trees and helped check the reference book.
A cute hopper insect!
The Pediomelium/Psoralea type legume had a long thin root. The end broke so we shall see if it lives.
Scarlet pea had a very long root. Again we’ll see how it grows!

Spiderworts, native perennial dayflower, an all yellow Gaillardia, fleabane, western horse nettle, and Heterotheca (I think?) all came up easily with a sharpshooter shovel. Little bluestem has very deep roots but I think they are supposed to be okay to divide. Fern acacia (I think??) had a longer root (over a foot for a 6” tall plant) that may have broken.

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05/29/2023 quarter inch rain

One of our four new prairie larkspurs has bloomed!!
I took several angles as I was excited. Three of four plants tried to bloom but their flower stalks got knocked over or snipped off by something toothy.
The showy milkweed in the side yard (north of the rainbow garden) is coming up!
Our three kinds of milkweed are growing!! The lower left one is a green milkweed. The two biggest plants are whorled milkweed (A. verticillata) from Abby. The one remaining viridiflora is not in the picture.
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05/27/2023 front yard

The rainbow garden is almost there.
The winecups have gotten MASSIVE. I have never seen such mammoth winecup leaves in the wild.
A typical winecup with regular sized leaves. We saw this one today on our afternoon walk, at Saxon Park.
A view panning over to see the Salvia greggii and coreopsis too. All the white flowers in the raised beds are cilantro. If you’ve been looking at our iNaturalist feed, the cilantro flowers are hopping with insect activity.
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05/05/2023 garden

Last year’s Datura is pushing up through the leaves!!
This Solomon’s seal is considering blooming.
The Strophostyles fuzzybeans are growing where I put them in compost pile wall blocks!
These wild yellow Oxalis volunteers are really looking good this year en masse.
This plantain came with the spike moss from Jeanne’s house in Nc TX.
Ratidiba columifera seedlings.
Top adult leaves
Seed leaves remaining
This second individual isn’t growing as tall.
Baptisia probably bracteata seedlings!
Possibly green milkweed seedlings in that pot with the Baptisia.
In the cactus tiered planter, a mystery seedling.
Mystery seedlings in the rose/bluehearts planter. Still hoping for bluehearts!
A brome grass. I need to key it. Not one of the common non native ones. Not sure if volunteers or I planted.
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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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04/03/2023 fruit trees before we left

Williams pride apple is blooming.
Seckel pear has started to leaf out and the Liberty apple behind it too.
I think this one is the bud on the Arkansas Black Apple. Or maybe McIntosh. I forget already. Update: Paula checked and it’s McIntosh.
Butterfly milkweed coming up in the rainbow garden!
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03/26/2023 field trip to Lexington WMA

Cruising around! We heard an upland chorus frog sing from a pond as we drove by. It sounds like a finger running over teeth of a comb!
I need to add captions and descriptions to the rest of the pics, but this Spiranthes sp was neat to see coming up!
Briar and Paula in safety hunter orange.
False garlic with tiny moths.
Paula caught a Little Brown Skink!
The skink did not want to stay for a visit.
A prairie verbena!
Armadillo!!! Briar ready, but actual briar vines kept her from following it far.
First Lomatium of the day. Briar helped by putting her nose by it.
Arnoglossum sp! Leaves
Bigger Arnoglossum species leaves!
The lovely valley we walked around. Had some damp spots.
Milkweed! Probably Asclepias verticillata??
Echinacea probably angustifolia? Leaf and last year’s seed head.
Thanks for laying down in the mud puddle, BRIAR.
Nostoc algae and scale lichens!
Paula found this great potter wasp nest!
Eventually found a big patch of Lomatium blooming.
Some Lomatium in light shade.
Some Lomatium almost done blooming.
Some Lomatium out in the sun.
Another prairie verbena.
A puccoon just opening!