Category: Native

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10/15/2023 thistle rosettes in the wild

A fingertip sized baby thistle!
Bigger thistle baby!
Another thistle rosette
They apparently overwinter this way
This rosette I’m not sure if it’s texanum or undulatum. I haven’t seen any undulatum seeds up yet in my pots.
This is the same individual as to the left, showing the white closely hairy underside of the thistle leaves.
These five thistle rosettes are probably mostly or all texanum, based on that only my texanum seeds have germinated into similar size rosettes. These are all at my parents’ house, where I got the seeds. Yay!
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10/12/2023 from home

Three stalls of liatris leaning against other plants and a green plastic pot. They are covered about half in purple flowers.
Liatris punctata var mucronata from home is finally in peak flower! It’s a bit horizontal because it’s near Briar’s favorite laying spot. Oops.
Small white asters on a scraggly-leaves branch
The heath asters aren’t as full as the local wild ones yet but they’ve started. This one hitched along with the liatris from home.
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10/08/2023 rain brightened it up

The bright pink tubular flowers of obedient plant arranged in a spike, with the top flowers still just barely budding.
Another plant of fall obedient plant started blooming! Coworkers gave me several of their plants and I put them in several spots around the yard. This one by the winter birdbath by the house was a bit optimistic but it seems to have made it!
A top view of the obedient plant flower spike showing the bright pink flowers contrasting with the long thin bright green leaves, all arranged oppositely.
I thought it looked neat from above with four rows of flowers in the spike.
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10/05/2023 three chef meal

Credit for fancy salad to Paula. The Chef made the bacon cheese chicken rounds and sautéed veggies. All of us and our guest rolled out potato gnocchi. The potato gnocchi is topped with pesto made with garden basil. the sunflowers are the ones from the garden from two days ago.
Our guest brought this exquisite chocolate flourless cake topped with chocolate ganache. Paula added the edible flower of Texas mallow. (It tastes… like a plant haha.). The cake was DIVINE.

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10/07/2023 weeding helper

Briar the German shepherd dog lays, looking completely and devastatingly bored, with her butt squishing the base of several stalks of Mexican sage, which are valiantly flowering purple and white above her butt.
After kindly avoiding sitting on the Mexican sage while I weeded, Briar finally decided to sit on them. 🙄
Briar the German shepherd dog stands with her head and back wedged under and draped by long arcs of Maximilian sunflower stalks and blooms.
Earlier, Briar helped us look over the now conveniently low Maximilian sunflowers. We can see all the insects easily!
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10/02/2023 feeding the world

Bright yellow composite flower stalks are fluffy with small blooms. They are in a rusted steel planter.
Probably Solidago rigidiuscula (thanks for ID, Mom!). This was an accidental but fortunate stowaway in the caliche from TX home!
Big arcs of flower covered Maximilian sunflowers are in bright sunlight in front of shaded and dark leaved Datura in the background.
Heavy work, feeding the neighborhood. The maxes hadn’t fully dropped yet here like they did after the rain.