Tag: seedlings

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06/05/2022 indoor/outdoor

I learned today that spiderworts are self-incompatible, so these buds didn’t have any seeds in them. Oh well. It was worth a try! Thanks Mom for sending and prompting me to look this up! It explains why we only have the one. 🙃
I repotted the aloe vera (not shown) and added some more dirt and another succulent to this pot, which lives inside in the entryway shelf.
Milkweed beetle! It’s standing on a dayflower and moving over to a nightshade, though.
Ashy Sunflower yet lives!!
Linum rigidum from home still blooming. It’s annual so I hope it seeds!
A different jumping spider.
A lightning bug resting on a native poinsettia (Euphorbia) leaf.
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06/04/2022 unexpected excitement

Saw a great little jumping spider on the ironweed leaves.
An interesting bee or velvet ant male or something, on white avens leaf. It was one of the nervous kinds who keeps flicking their wings constantly.
The rain of the last few days prompted the Missouri fluttermill primrose to bloom again!
The Chef and I cleared leaves off the patio. In several places they were up against the wood siding which is not great as they are essentially composting. Here Briar holds down a leaf pile for us. We leave the leaves in the rest of the yard as that is best for a healthy woodland environment!
The worst offending area of leaf collection next to the house. This is after I pulled out the bulk of leaves. Our compost pile should be happy now!
An extremely tiny planthopper that the Chef found on the outdoor work bench.
The last round of tepary beans I planted are coming up.
The big thrill of the day… The horse crippler cactus in the rock garden has bloomed!!!! I imagine this means it’s either happy here or thinks it’s about to die. Hopefully the former. Since I just planted it this spring I wasn’t expecting it, and its flower bud was not obvious, or grew in really fast the last few days when I wasn’t looking with the rain.
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06/03/2022

Lyre leaf sage sprouting where I have sprinkled it in front yard.
Who’s this lurking in the buffalo grass?
Shackleton of course!  He persuaded the Chef to go outside.
The Chef decided it was so nice out we walked to Braum’s for dinner.
Then we walked to the duck pond and saw some geese and their baby goslings!
Close up of the babies.
There were a lot of winecups around the duck pond! Great to see.
Possibly smells nice too? The end.
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06/02/2022

New book in the mail! The Social Wasps of North America by Chris Alice Kratzer. It looks very useful.
Awards for bravery all around tonight. Shacks walked right past Briar and she stayed put.
Purple coneflower finally opening up!
Ironweed is budding, seems early??
This is one of two dill seedlings in the herb bed.
Pretty sure now that this is the Mexican sage from Judy.
Whoa, standing cypress about to bloom!
The just-planted two leaf senna doing okay.
The older two leaf senna seems to have gotten nibbled. I’ll have to consider if I should put some Vaseline around it against earwigs or a wire cage over it maybe for rabbits.
A non native moss rose (Portulaca). Dog behind.

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05/30/2022 afternoon

A fleabane in the front yard.
Same fleabane, the leaves. This was in the lawn, so I need to decide if I will transplant or save seeds.

An Asian long bean from my aunt. Thanks to my aunt!!
Only one of many zucchini seeds has sprouted. I think they were too old. I will get new or save new next year.
Large leaf basil seedlings.
Purple beauty pepper has a flower bud!
Briar thought she was interested in my snack but it turns out broccoli isn’t her thing.
The swamp milkweed I just bought, receiving its afternoon sunlight.
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05/28/2022 after planting

Plants I got from the “pop up” location of Prairie Wind Nursery: Copper canyon daisy, Pineapple sage, local genotype Baptisia australis (planted between roses near the trellis fence), Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, planted near the elderberry as apparently they like similar soils), rattlesnake master (planted on drier side of brush pile), chives (the round green type as only the flatter white edges kind survived the winter this year), and five kinds of basil in my ongoing attempt to find where they like in the yard. Varieties were African blue (in raised beds in front of tomatoes), mammoth (small plant but big crinkly leaves) in the herb bed (where I have not tried any basil before), and amethyst, Genovese, and large leaf in the front strawberry bed near porch.

Mystery sunflower in the “prairie”. Rough leaf sunflower, or a bird seed sunflower?? It’s much narrower, but not quite like the ones I dug from home yard.
A much better capture of the long true bug. I feel it’s very svelte. The Gram of true bugs. So long. It’s on the native poinsettia.
The mystery seedling by dividing fence is definitely a legume and not passionvine. So, tepary from last year? Butterfly pea? Or maybe trailing wild bean from Abby?? We’ll find out…
Stripey plant hopper on Texas mallow.
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It lives!!! (Coryphantha sulcata)

On Thursday evening I was closing the plant window curtain when on a whim I checked the cactus tray. I have been watering the little shriveled Coryphantha sulcata seedling occasionally since there was still green, but I figured it was dead. It’s suddenly all plump and alive again!!!!!! Abby had the excellent suggestion that maybe the day length is now long enough for it to decide it’s spring and time to collect water again.
Since the cats have been in plant window a lot, I figured the baby might be safer outside in a more stable pot. So on Saturday (yesterday) I repotted it carefully into fresh cactus potting mix.
I have put it in the shade of the big planter, since my recent reading on baby cacti suggests that may best imitate a cactus seedling environment in the wild.
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05/26/2022

Thursday the 26th.

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.
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05/25/2022 last rain day

The Datura wrightii is still alive near the chimneys.
Rudbeckia amplexicaulis from home is starting to bloom! I put this by the bird bath.
Helianthus mollis coming up! The others I did from seeds in the Tupperware didn’t make it. This one came up on its own.
The second senna has gained another pair of leaves!