Native Gardening

[JBtheExplorer]

Here's a couple photos of my Prairie Smoke, which is my first bloom of the year.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Here's some photos of my native plants... First, a few around my pond.

Bee on Prairie Smoke.

Signs of smoke.

Yesterday, my final Marsh Marigold bloomed.

Today, Yellow Star Grass started to bloom.

Out in the native garden, only woodland species are blooming.


Wild Geranium

Common Blue Violet

Wild Ginger

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Just found the first Blue-eyed Grass flower in my native garden!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

My Prairie Smoke looks to be just about done blooming now.

Wild Geranium continues.

Eastern Red Columbine has just begun!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Went to the local Wild Ones native plant sale today and got five new plants.
Limited myself to five, but easily could've taken one of everything!

Cardinal Flower, Wine Cups, False Rue Anemone, Hoary Vervain, Side Oats Grama

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Caterpillar on Joe Pye Weed.

Spiderwort

Penstemon

Bumble Bee squeezing into Blue Flag Iris

 

[JBtheExplorer]

The Purple Poppy Mallow I picked up at the plant sale at the beginning of June is starting to bloom today!

 

[Lisak1]

Love love love the poppy mallow! At this time of year I love anything that's blooming that isn't YELLOW!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Love love love the poppy mallow! At this time of year I love anything that's blooming that isn't YELLOW!

Meanwhile, I'm begging for yellow. Bush's Coneflower has been nice to see, but I expected to have a fantastic black-eyed susan bloomfest, but nearly all of them are diseased with what I'm sure is Aster Yellows. I'll have to rip them all out and try them again in the future.

 

[Lisak1]

My black eyed susan's didn't come back this year either - probably the same. I have so much yellow though - stella d'oro day lilies did fantastic this year and coreopsis is out of control and my sedum mostly blooms yellow... I'm longing for some cool blues and pinks and reds!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

and coreopsis is out of control!

Coreopsis is another issue for me, but in a different way. Rabbits completely took care of my coreopsis lanceolata buds this year. I have about two flowers total. My Common Milkweed and oldest Swamp Milkweeds look sick. A section of Wild Bergmont looked sick and then suddenly got knocked down, guessing rabbits chewed the base of them. Nervous that my Purple Coneflowers will get Aster Yellows. Not the best year in my native garden, but it's still active with life, and that's what matters most. Now I just need to figure out which plants do the best and focus on expanding their populations and replacing the ones that don't.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Although it's not native, I picked up a packet of dill seeds this year in hopes of attracting Black Swallowtail butterflies. Hoping to see some caterpillars. This will be going in what was originally intended to be a vegetable garden but has now become a random garden that includes vegetables, fruits, native plants, and weeds.

 

[j.w]

@JBtheExplorer so they like the blooms on dill, interesting.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

@JBtheExplorer so they like the blooms on dill, interesting.

They use it as a host plant, they lay eggs on it. Not sure of the significance of nectar from the flowers.

 

[mrsclem]

They are also attracted to parsley. I still have 5 black swallowtail chrysalis from last year in my shed. Hoping to move them to a greenhouse in the next week and see if they hatch.