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.
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!

05/02/2023 leash walk and blooming

Hidden dog among englemann daisies and showy evening primroses.
Englemann daisy close up.
The Solomon’s seals by the dining room window are doing well, as are their colleagues around the yard.

04/16/2023 new Solomon’s seal

Today while pulling invasive introduced dayflower I ran across a little baby Solomon’s seal! I am holding a dayflower next to it for comparison.
Paula also found a new pair of Solomon’s seals just south of the red oak on April 11.

10/09/2022 Saxon park

Schinia gaurae moth (the clouded crimson) caterpillar on false gaura! We counted nine around our 1.75 mi loop.
The tall rosettes of the false gaura were nice to see since they look just like my garden one.
A Schinia moth I haven’t identified feeding on aster flowers.
This bumblebee loved the Salvia azurea.
Back of two spotted bumblebee where you can see the spots!
Funnel web spider says no pictures, please.
A tree cricket hiding on Liatris.
The seed pod of a Baptisia. Mom said possibly B. australis var. minor
Paula found two big beautiful lynx spider mommas! Wow! This is one guarding its egg sac.
A tiny caterpillar on false gaura.
The first Solomon’s seal I’ve seen in the wild! We have several in the yard but no idea if they’re volunteers or planted.
Probably a buckwheat, the botany consulting committee says.
Abby, Mom, and Jeanne also agreed this was probably a dwarf lead plant.
Paula found a magnificent sumac leaf turning yellow to red.
The Sumac is really turning beautiful reds all over!

05/12/2022 dramatic surprise

I realized today that these funny friends near the dining room window were blooming.
It turns out they are a native Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum)!!! Thanks to Abby for confirming the identification.
Apparently they do grow in the wild in Cleveland county, so these could be volunteers or they could be planted. Apparently the native species (as well as some non native species in the same genus) used to be more popular as a shade plant. The Chef mentioned seeing them in older people’s gardens in his home town in northeastern Oklahoma. The linked website also says one of the non native species has a strong odor to the flower, and these had no particular smell for either of us.
There is also a clump of them near the compost bin, shaded by the house most of the day.
They do have fun leaves, and have never spread far, so I had never bothered to pull them up before. (Having never seen them in the wild before, I had assumed these leaves were something non native.)
Sure glad I didn’t!!