Individual plant specimens can be sourced from one of three categories: wild, landrace, or feral. Not all species originated as wild.
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Some highlights I snapped pictures of today:
Monarda punctata finally starting to bloom! This is one of our (and the bees) absolute favorites. I have 2 patches. Ultimately, there are 6+ flowers stacked. No idea what the actual terminology for flowers like this is.
Joe pyeweed almost in bloom. This was sold me as coastal, but it’s 6.5’ tall, so it’s either huge because everything grows 50-100% taller than it should be in this garden, or it might be gateway.
Woodland sunflower (helianthus divaricata) blooming. I didn’t respect the note that this forms colonies when I planted a few patches a year ago…it has spread SO much. I’ll be trying to dig up clumps to move in the fall. I tried moving two last fall and they had absolutely epic roots after just 4 months in the ground.
One more- I think the developing flowers on hibiscus moschuetos are just so cool. A few have been starting to open each day.
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Im not too picky about ‘natives’ myself.
If i see bees or wasps loving something by the roadside… i go back and get seed in the fall.
My favorite flowers right now are bergamot, chickory and crown vetch as well as my swamp milkweed.
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Are you talking about dog fennel? It’s native to the east/southeast USA
Apparently not. I’ll try to get a picture later. The leaves are more fern-like than feathery. It’s attractive, but very aggressive.
It’s in the mint family Lamiaceae so that is called a verticillaster, one of the greatest words ever
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Here’s a picture of the thing. Not hard to look at, but doesn’t play nice. (It’s mixed in with some Russian sage, if I have that right.)
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Looks like yarrow.
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That sounds much more like it -I think you’re right. I had a slick spot on my brain and tried to cover it up with “fennel”. Thank you!
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Im having fun with Carrots right now. If you have some for the holidays just leave them in the veggie drawer and let them get all rooty and hairy… then plant them in the spring… just the tops with some roots. Nice big umbrels with gazillions of little flowers that little bees and wasps etc love. Alot of fun for something so common.
Not my pics but i got my idea from this person who says that they really enjoy all the things that they bring in to gaze at.
I planted some other wildflower mixes etc but i enjoy my carrots more… not sure if the fancy colored carrots will give different results but i think i might try next year.
Cheap fun for me anyways.
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Volunteer Indian blankets only came up on the edges of street and driveway. Here are a few. I think bc they’re surface sown and with all the rain, that’s where the seeds washed away and got stuck. It’s nice to see them normal height…the patch I grew last year went to 4’!! I also germinated a bunch in a strawberry container and planted the seedlings around, but really late. I’m hoping the intentional ones bloom in a few weeks. I highly recommend this native annual- it’s a stunner.
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I would see this on the drive in the very dry mountains east of Phoenix. I think out there it was also the concentration of rain getting increased due to the runoff.
In spring the entire edge of the highway would be purple, blue, yellow, or orange depending on where in the 8 week event it was
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That sounds magnificent.
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It was beautiful but the downside was the shocking amount of butterflies you would hit with your car, your entire windshield would be rainbows because of it
And, that’s horrible!
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Here’s a view of my mountain mint Pycnanthemum muticum through the window. Full of bees- I had to carve a path to get to my hose bib without disturbing them. I also grow chocolate mint for the mint, this one I grow for the menthol since I have a problem with a chronic cough and so this is a TEOTWAWKI planting in case I can’t get regular cough drops or Vicks rub. Have two plantings- this one and another next to the chocolate mint, which is winning that battle.
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Hibiscus moschuetos has started blooming. The blooms are so spectacular; it’s hard to capture their beauty in a picture. Each plant lost half its canes in a spring storm before I remembered to brace them, but thankfully they still have plenty.
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Those “Indian blanket” flowers are gallardia (most likely puchella) and they should be perennial for you in zone 7.
I’m in 6b and they are a favorite of mine because they are great in marginal areas and bloom for a very long time.
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Unfortunately, they’re not. I had two big patches and none returned from the ones seeded in ‘24. But, they’re very easy to grow from seed and make a million seed heads to save/give away.
Online references seem to indicate that Gaillardia pulchella is an annual (or short lived if more than a year). I’m growing Gaillardia aristata and while it would be hard to tell apart from G. pulchella by appearance, it has been perennial.
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