I was examining the stems and base of the two scarlet peas we dug up in early fall from the doomed prairie (sold for building on) in town. I’ve been watering both since we moved them. Today I noticed a tiny green shoot emerging from one stem of one plant! I’m going to try to grow this species from seed too but it’s nice to know at least one made it.
It appears at the Neighborhood Walmart at Classen and Constitution in Norman they have used skunkbush or fragrant sumac (I’m not sure which) as their parking lot divider bush!! Good job whoever decided this!!
I think the seed from home being fresh helped, as one came up very quickly this summer. All of these happened after we bought two plants at the native plant festival haha. This verbena seed took almost a year I think to come up, and now two little seedlings are up too. So the many of them just want to take their own time. Its leaves are different. More like I expected for Verbena halei but I had it labeled where I thought it was prairie. We shall find out!
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!
The original saffron patch after being divided this spring has three plants big enough to flower! A bumblebee was visiting one!I didn’t divide this patch very well oops. In the front yard, I had planted three patches the last two seasons. So far only one is up and no visible flowers. someone else here near Norman had several at this stage. I think the smaller bulbs don’t flower the first season and need to grow more. Judy reports one flower from her bulbs planted in the spring after the division! Hers are in a pot.
So, in spite of rain all day and temperatures in the 30s F, I went out and cut all the plants. That’s the giant pile of cut basil on an overflowing Rubbermaid tub and assorted cut off pepper plants nearby. The rest of the day was getting basil leaves off the stems. The basil stems were so big I had to use the loppers to cut them at the base.3608 grams of basil leaves. This is 7.95 pounds. Yes, we did tare the tub weight. Yes, it is a lot of basil. No, I don’t even know what’s going to happen. LeafhopperTrue bug nymphJumping spiderPraying mantisWe had several little friends come in on the basil. All were released back into the shelter of adjacent plants outside.
Last night we had a lovely series of small thunderstorms and got a half an inch of rain in the gauge. This morning I think the flowers looked a little cleaner!! These are Grindelia ciliata in front of gaura and Maximilian sunflowers. The smaller yellow flowers are Heterotheca subaxillaris, which I recently learned has the common name of camphorweed. I keep forgetting to smell it.