The last few weeks have been a bit chaotic. Nonetheless, Briar says it’s important to take time to smell the inland sea oats!The yellow flowerThe flower on its giant plantsMy mystery soft growing plants have turned out to be GIANT Heterotheca subaxillaris. the flowers are regular size but the plants are 2-4 feet tall!
This beautiful young friend has obviously been growing for a while since it has half a dozen leaves, but I only spotted it recently. We had planted blackjack acorns under the red oak in several places in hopes of starting a grove (they’ll probably stay understory height until the red oak dies in the hopefully long-distant future). this one is north of the blackberries and south of the one beautyberry.
The sea oats that came up a few years ago from purchased seeds. They finally bloomed!There are three surprise amaryllis in the yard! They are all this shade of pink. Not native, but obviously tough, and not spreading so it can stay for now. The Texas mallows have begun to bloom! I love how bright they are in the shade. Rudbeckia lacinata from Abby is very happy this wet summer and has started to bloom. Helianthus petiolaris from seeds are starting to bloom! There is a crab spider hiding behind one petal that you can just see their legs.
This plant is in the correct pot and sort of looks like leaf pictures I could find online. Here’s a top view of the leaves. They sort of look like an online picture I found, so I guess we’ll keep watching and waiting.
We planted two baby Arkansas yuccas a week or so ago in front of the house. The bigger one (see next picture) is doing fine. this little one, which I am pointing at, has been struggling hard and has about half a leaf remaining. At first I just watered it extra but now I have added a shade and moisture retention barrier on the west side consisting of a wall of sticks and leaves about 2 inches high. I point at the bigger yucca seedling. It has three skinny blue-green leaves. A stray strawberry leaf is visible in the back.