Heath asters were buzzin‘!Common Eastern bumblebees were all over both the Heath asters and these Liatris mucronata. Wooly bear!Marigolds doing well around the sweet peppers. A close up of the same marigolds. They really thrive in the fall.
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. 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.
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 milkweedNot 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 peaOldplainsmanMysteryCaliche planter babiesThe 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.
A winecup from two summers ago came back.This true bug was relatively long and thin, and is standing on greeneyes. It flew away before I got a better picture.Bee fly at woodland edge!I’m hoping this could be inland sea oats that I seeded two years ago. Edit: Abby agrees.There’s a passionvine label here but this could also be butterfly pea?? We’ll find out!!Across the fence from mystery seedling is a known passionvine.Showy milkweed has survived its planting.I think these are the Mexican sage from Judy.A small bee on coreopsis.Mystery grass. I will note here when I hear back from the grass expert! (Then I can check here next year when I forget haha.). Edit: Mom says is the native little barley again. This one is a volunteer so I’m glad it does well here! Doesn’t get taller than the buffalo grass too so it can stay in the “lawn”.Close up.A small native legume whose name I’ve forgotten. There are quite a few growing in the rainbow beds and in the backyard at the edge of the patio.A lightning bug on a rain barrel.A leaf miner in the native coral honeysuckle!I think this dark spot is the larva, visible on underside of leaf. So tiny!Overall the coral honeysuckle is beginning to get going. This one was from Judy! Thanks Judy!A wild grape that we dug from the front to make room for strawberries. Joke’s on us because there was root left up front and it’s now taking over the rain barrel stand too.Another black nightshade. I think their tiny flowers are so pretty.Elderberry just starting.I think a mealy bug? On ironweed stem.Liatris mucronata from home from last summer.Dicanthelium grass that came along with Liatris.A tiny insect on ironweed.Purple coneflower working its way towards blooming.A mystery leaf.The mystery leaf above came along with the transplanted wedge leaf Euphorbia.
Home from doggie daycare.I need to look this one up again but we have a lot. It’s native. It’s Solanaceae. Edit: Mom says Solanum ptycanthum.Yellow flax (Linum rigidum) and showy evening primrose.The sadly too common Canis bordumA winecup seedling!!More winecup seedlings!!A few leaves have stayed green on the fragrant sumac. I’ve been using the terracotta pot to dribble out more water to it.Desert blue curls!! (Phacelia campanularia). I was really baffled about the little purple spotted seedlings but this is it. Yay!!Cactus planter prickly pears doing well.Asian long bean from my aunt are growing well.Knock on not-rotting wood, the Roman chamomile hasn’t been eaten by earwigs unlike the last batch.Pink buckwheat blooming.Mom, is this the Liatris from home? (Also some pretty Dicanthelium grass)Widow sedum about to bloom!
Blue flax seedlings are getting tiny new leaves.Possibly a false gaura! It looks different from the common volunteers!Two Datura wrightii seedlings!A senna hopeful.It is actually a bit rough, so maybe this is the rough leaf sunflower??A redbud I potted up last year.The Euphorbia from Mom and Dad’s house is perking back up.Roman chamomile did well while I was gone!Lettuce and bok choy doing good.Two more fluttermill Missouri primrose seedlings up!The horse crippler cactus transplanted from Mom’s garden.I’ve put a drip on the ground plum (actually a legume) since yesterday, as it seems to be having a rough transplant. This is also into the rock garden.In the rainbow garden, a mystery seedling. Maybe two leaf senna???Butterfly milkweed is coming up in rainbow garden.Maybe another butterfly milkweed? It’s in the right place.A single cilantro seedling. The only one in the yard. In that crack.A winecup from two years ago.Purple prairie clover from two years ago.Maybe Liatris leaves? It’s in the right spot.Another mystery seedling.Tall vervain is perking up a bit.Ten petal anemone are perking up too!Greeneyes getting bigger!My blue stars are blooming!Salvia azurea leaves.
The Chef took very good care of the garden while I was on vacation and we got very, very, very, very lucky to get rain and no hail in our part of town. I’m poking at my potted plants right now. I’ll do another post later with the ground plants and raised beds and permanent planters.
Echineacea pallida left out all winter sprouted well (seeds from prairie moon nursery) a while back. I put some of the seedlings in the ground when I left and I’ll plant these last ones soon.The Chimayó peppers from Judy grew almost all these adult leaves. When I left each had one small adult leaf.Hungarian heart tomatoes to replace the one that got killed by the late frost. The seedlings emerged in the plant window so I put them outside yesterday when I got back.I repotted this eggplant right before I left. It has grown a lot. The other one I repotted hasn’t grown as much.Finally the culinary sage is starting to sprout! The only one that was up before now has an adult leaf.These passionvines are the ones where I just smooshed the fruit into a pot and left them out all winter.Liatris mucronata has a hilarious long leaf. I had another one in a bigger pot but it seems to be dying.This yucca now has three leaves! I also planted one in the ground when I left, because it was in the relatively shallow sprouting tray, and it is still alive in the ground.Planted the other tray of green milkweed (Asclepias virida) before I left and will plant these ones soon.Volunteer redbud dug from front raised beds. Eventually I’ll put it in the ground here in backyard. I don’t think it grew any taller, so hopefully it’s working on roots.I now have at least three baby columbines in the sprouting tray and one out in the yard. The package said direct seeding in fall was best, even over stratifying manually, so that’s what I did even for the trays. These babies look a lot like clover, especially when smaller, so I’ve had to be careful.
The purple lady bok choy grows quite nicely when earwigs are not swarming it.
It grows bigger, too!
The wildflower seeds are doing better than I had hoped!
The green milkweeds are starting to have adult leaves. There are actually pale coneflowers (Echinacea pallida) growing! A single adult leaf is emerging on the Liatris mucronata. I have a second one in a smaller pot too. I mistook the leaf of this seedling for a clover and pulled it yesterday, but quickly realized my mistake. I put it back in the dirt and watered it and it seems okay so far?? I hope so as it’s the only columbine seedling I’ve found so far in the sprouting trays or on the ground where I put seeds in the fall. The package said best sown outdoors in the fall.
