Tag: Maximilian sunflower

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Tuesday night and it might rain

American beautyberry leaves aren’t quite as pathetic?
The Maximilian sunflower roots we moved in winter are VERY happy.
Zizia sp from Abby are perking up!
It doesn’t smell like mint – maybe New Jersey tea I planted last year??
Agastache sp. from seed from Paula.
Bag traps cat, baffles cat’s emotional support dog.
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Checking up on fall garden intervention

Faithful blog readers may recall a Garden Intervention last fall. Today we delivered a few more plants (coral honeysuckle and Mexican plum) and checked up on the previous plantings. Here’s one of the showy evening primrose!
Doesn’t have the red spots but I think this is the other showy evening primrose. It’s in the right spot.
Several patches of Maximilian sunflower are doing great.
An interesting mystery plant I haven’t seen in my yard. Please comment if you know what it might be!
Possibly a baby Rudbeckia from the seed mixes that the resident humans have tried?
We made a second visit later in the winter to plant more sunflowers, plus goldenrod and Englemann daisies from Abby. Here’s the goldenrod!
All the Englemann daisies we planted had leaves.
Thank goodness the Doggie is home again!!
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This week’s events… Busy busy

Got winecup (Callirhoe involucrata) seeds in the mail from prairiemoon.com. This species gets boiling water then 30 days cold in fridge. They also kindly sent a free seed packet of Dalea purpurea which we immediately planted.
The straggler roots of Maximilian sunflower are everywhere. Paula and I lifted up this stepping stone to find more. We’re potting them up to give away. The big colony that we transferred over to edge of shade is sprouting too.
Glass gem popcorn now in the raised beds!
Judy gave me these delightful frog stepping stones for my birthday! Thanks Judy!!
The Phacelia leaf in the rock garden is very similar to the invasive geranium leaf I am holding, but isn’t as round.
In the very middle, you can see a single Datura pushing up. The other seedlings look like what I hoped was honeysuckle, but is now coming up everywhere.
This seedling is in the Two-Leaf Senna pot. We’ll see.
Human, you must rest.
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The finished projects from yesterday plus seeds today

Four t posts. Wires go east to west on both, holding in the blackberry canes so we can walk through and harvest. There was one new sprout in the middle that grew up and we moved it into a line with another.
Close up so you can see aluminum wire.
We finished the compost pile area yesterday but I forgot to take a picture. Wes did a lovely job leveling it all and put rebar through several holes to keep it in place.
I connected an old hose from one of the rain barrels to make sure the pile stays suitably damp for decomposition.
See that big seedling on the lower right edge? I don’t recognize it, so there is a possibility it’s the native bush honeysuckle Lonicera albiflora which is what I planted in this pot and left out all winter.
A pale but bright turquoise fungus growing on the showy milkweed seeds. The seeds felt plump though so maybe some will grow.
Strophostyles helvula bean seeds. One has fungus but also a little root!!
All the seeds we planted out of fridge stratification today. There’s still a few more left for late April that needed more time.
A little mystery seedling in the old Maximilian sunflower area.
Paula and I pulled and dug a lot of Maximilian sunflower shoots out of there. Hopefully we can find them new homes!
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Potato time

We decided it was time to try planting the potato eyes in the straw bales. This one was prepped by watering it and wrapping it in plastic.
Paula plants the same variety in the unwrapped bale that received water and fertilizer.
A little baby yarrow! Not sure if this is a transplant from home or from seed, but glad to see it.
Maximilian sunflowers are still coming up from the area we dug up.
We pulled them up and put them along the back fence.
While digging a hole to plant a little elderberry shoot, I broke open an underground fungus ball. Neat!
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Garden intervention

Our friends have been having trouble getting native plants established in their yard. In the past we’ve done spring and summer transplants and they’ve put in seeds too. Nothing has taken, so today Paula and I delivered and planted two of our hardiness species.

A stalk of Maximilian sunflower settled into a yard with Bermuda grass.
Their old Christmas tree shelters the newly moved dirt from Dog Ideas.
Showy evening primroses in their enclosed garden area.
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Moving the Max

Big empty hole in the prairie patch where we dug up the Maximilian sunflowers.
We brought a single stalk here from our old house and now it’s a massive 2×3′ ish patch.
Broader view. Put more cardboard down to kill Bermuda.
Briar just sat here while plant stalks went everywhere.
Such dignity.
Found a lost loofah in the front yard afterwards.
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Wet bumblebee and other things

Last night, brought in dwarf tomatoes and purple and chocolate peppers since temps forecast (and did reach) into 40s.
On Thursday night, before another night rain, Paula and I planted more wildflower seeds. Mom sent these Yellow Puff seeds. We scarified them by scraping their hard coats on the concrete patio.
On Thursday morning, I saw this very dew-drenched bumblebee. I was hoping it might be a two spotted bumblebee but I think the yellow on its abdomen was just clumping together with the dew??