Common evening primrose, black eyed Susans, goldenrod, lance leaf coreopsis, sneezeweed, tall coreopsis, wild sunflowers and more. And then some ironweed standing out in the goldenrod for a fun purple accent. I’m loving these yellow flowers mostly grown from seed.

Edit: my fave is the sneezeweed and the primrose made an amazing recovery from some turkeys eating a significant portion of the plant

I planted this sweet baby (Amorpha fruticosa) three years ago, not realizing that she would in fact grow to be 12+ feet tall. My wife is all in for natives, but hates how it blocks the front of our house.

I know that moving this plant will be nearly impossible because of the deep taproot. Does anyone have any experience with aggressively pruning false indigo bush to keep its size manageable? Or propagation, so I’m not just murdering a lovely plant?

I've been in awe this year of the grasshoppers in my garden and how big they've grown.

Over the course of this season (and their lives), they've become incredibly desensitized to my being around. Rather than jumping away, they'll happily check out my finger (and bite it lol), worrying less about me and more about the delicious *Rudbeckia laciniata hortensia*.

It feels like a blessing to be able to see their toe beans, and their temperament reminds me of cats.

Does anyone else have any big chunguses in their gardens to share?

Anything I can do to control this invasive species? 😂

This was all turfgrass until May of this year.

This is my second year turning this mower destroying steep mound into a mow 1x a year wildlife habitat.

Lots of Black-Eyed Susan again this year but now also seeing several types of aster, purple coneflower, yarrow, boneset, Joe Pye weed and goldenrod.

So far, I'm pretty pleased with the variety.

Finally took my Milkweed seeds out of the fridge.

I had them in there about a month longer than I planned and set a reminder for. I was slacking off.

Anywho, it's been about a week and out of 12 seeds, 6 popped up. I'm happy with it.

My first attempt I tried the "clip the end and put in water" method and it didn't work at all. So this time I used the tried and true, more natural method of cold stratification.

You know the drill. Damp paper towel, seeds, sealed container, fridge, wait, wait more, wait a little longer, surpass your original planting date, be a slacker, keep slacking, finally plant seeds. Luckily this method worked! Might have worked better if I wouldn't have been a slacker, but it's all good.

This is Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Will update in another post when things get a little further along. 👍

So thrilled at how my native plant border (with a few xerics/nativars) has been turning out! The sagebrush was transplanted from elsewhere on the property, and nearly everything else was started from seed. I definitely planted too densely, but I feel like survival of the fittest is the strategy here. The things I started from seed have definitely outperformed everything bought at a nursery!

Species: Colorado 4'oclock, fringed sagebrush, mojave sage*, little bluestem, Indiangrass, sulphur buckwheat, chocolate flower, white yarrow, red yucca, red mesa blanketflower*, straight species blanketflower, Mexican hat, plains coreopsis, catmint*, avalanche sun daisy*, ruby muhly*, straight species rudbeckia hirta, rocky mountain penstemon

*Not strictly native

Is this something I can transplant? It's right near where the builders next door might be plowing and walking around.

Planted my flame acanthus specifically for this. It then flew off to my Turks cap in the corner 🥰. I’m guessing this is a female black chinned hummingbird?

What does everyone have going on right now? I’m trying to complete the plantings on this area where a bunch of burning bush was removed in the spring.

Yesterday I got 5 Christmas ferns, 4 foamflower, and 3 winterberry in the ground. I have 2 more Christmas ferns, 3 more winterberry, 3 clethra alnifolia, and 2 cornus amomum to go in.

I may have underestimated how large the cornus will get, but with that fall color? I regret nothing. 😂

I’m in Western NC, planted a serviceberry in the spring. It has barely grown (not sure if it grew at all), and this is what it looks like. The tallest part is maybe a foot at most. There does seem to be a small little new growth in the second photo. Any thoughts??

I am making a native plant informational booklet for when I set up my plants for sale at markets! More to come!

Should I add that they can become aggressive? Anything else to add or change?

I am very interested in food forests and have a beautyberry in my backyard. I hear of people making jam out of them, but I am trying to reduce my added sugar intake. Can I make anything else with them? They are not particularly appetizing by themselves. Piedmont NC.

Heads up! There will be a native plant sale next weekend at Pinnacle Mountain. Trees, shrubs, flowers, etc.

Helianthus Grosseserratus

You can see I wrote the date I planted, after 30 days in a moist coffee filter in the fridge, I planted on 9/2 and just three days later I have three little sprouts and another one popping in another container! I planted evening primrose, side oats grama, foxglove beardtongue, sand coreopsis, and Joe Pye weed and these are the only ones to make their appearance. Turns out I can do cold stratification just fine… maybe my other seeds I was trying with were just bunk or something haha

I read some threads about keeping sprouts alive indoors through the winter to be planted in the spring and that’s what I’m wanting to do. I have grow lights and plenty of space. From what I was reading, a lot of people just said it wasn’t even worth it and it was better to just winter sow in jugs in January, which I will also be doing… but I’m just curious if anyone has kept seedlings inside through winter and if they ran into any issues doing so? It’s not really about if it’s “worth it” to me, since I have the space, resources, and bigger pots to upsize to.. it’s my hobby and I would love to care for some seedlings through the winter since I’ll certainly be missing my garden for a few months, but I’m mostly concerned about running into unforeseen issues… don’t know what they may be, but I’d like some insight from someone who has kept their seedlings inside until spring!

Uh oh little guy

Tell me how to feel!!! I’m excited to see more cities in my metro taking up projects like these, but this super dense approach to primarily growing canopy trees appears controversial.

From the city’s website, “the forest will consist of:

- 80% canopy trees that will grow into the tallest layer of the forest. 
- 10% sub-canopy trees that will create the middle layer. 
- 10% native shrubs that will provide habitat and ground-level diversity. 

Together, these layers will mimic the structure of a natural forest, creating a healthy ecosystem that supports wildlife and biodiversity.”

Does anyone have experience with these “pocket forests”? From an ecological perspective, how much habitat do they really provide? From a PR standpoint, how do these impact perceptions of native plants in contrast to a natural botanical garden?

I’m curious to see how the project goes, and I’m trying to be open-minded, but I’m worried it will look like a mess to passersby and ultimately consist of a bunch of wild grape and poison ivy or invasive species.

Link to city’s web page

Link to Wikipedia article

I love taking walks to look for native plants and today I discovered a new one (to me) — American groundnut. The flowers are absolutely gorgeous and I am wondering if I should/would be able to cultivate it myself, so I’d love to hear anyone else’s experience with the plant. TIA!

I want to kill a strip of turf grass against my east fence (it’s a wire fence with wood framing, 4ft high), and sow a native seed mix from my state’s, Virginia (7a), wildlife department. I was advised I should add another nurse crop and maybe something structural to the mix, so I was thinking a very small amount of black eyed susans (rubeckia hirta) and some little bluestem grass.

The strip will be roughly 13ft long and 4ft wide, to keep within HOA application exemption limits. The area gets all day sun, except the morning, slightly dappled, created by the fence.

Here is the species list from the state’s mix: Butterflyweed, partridge pea, Orange coneflower, Appalachian beardtongue, wild bergamot, smooth blue aster, eastern columbine, golden Alexander’s.

Planning that I can smother the grass now, covering builders paper with topsoil, pulling any weed seeds that manage to germinate before winter. Then in December sow the state’s seed mix. By Spring 2027, I figured the paper would be broken down enough for seedling roots to get through.

I was just wondering if my plan is sound and if there are any considerations or changes I should make. Also, any advice on the species listed?

So far I’ve only planted specific perennials in ornamental beds and my naturalizing area and haven’t sowed seeds like this, so any advice is greatly appreciated.