Why I Oughta...

I've tried to plant milkweed in various years via seed.  And, have never had any real success.  Either they didn't get enough water or the seeds didn't germinate.  This year, I didn't plant any.  But....we NOW have a single Milkweed plant.  A volunteer.  It is growing right by the Limelight Hydrangeas on the side/front of the porch.  I suspect that this came via the downspouts - as they exit near this location.  The seeds went airborne, drove down into the bed and irrigated via the downspouts.  It hasn't fruited, so I'm not sure it will come back next year. Below is a look at the volunteer milkweed:

Last Spring, my neighbor to the south shared a couple of native Spring Ephemerals that live in her garden - Virginia Bluebells and Bloodroot - or Sanguinaria canadensis .  They grow in a woodland part of her backyard garden and arrive in early Spring and depart before everything else comes alive.  She gave me a clump of each and I dug them into the bed that is right across the fence from where they came from - my thought was if they were happy on one side of the fence, they'll be happy on the other.  The conditions are virtually identical. The Virginia Bluebells came back earlier this month.  That's nice to see.  But, the Bloodroot just arrived.  See below for a look at the current state of this native Spring ephemeral: Nice to see this one come back for another year - as the transplanting process last year was stressful. These naturalize and spread out to create a little colony or drift (if conditions are right).  The idea of " Spring ephemerals " is something that

A couple of years back, I submitted some photos of a volunteer plant to the Morton Arboretum Plant Clinic and they came back and said that it was 'likely Wild Geranium'.  I left the plant to just 'be' and it has come back the past few seasons ever since.  This year, however, it is blooming pretty prolifically.  See below for the light-purple blooms that are standing up on tall stalks with green foliage: This small colony of Wild Geranium seems to be thriving along the fence.  The tree trunk in the middle of the photo is a tall/lanky Kentucky Coffee Tree .  And you can see some of the spreading Ostrich Ferns mixed-in there.  

Last year, we planted a pair of heart-leaf brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla) from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin and planted them in the understory garden of our backyard.  This is the little section that my middle child has been planting with various low and mid-height perennials.   These managed to avoid the rabbits last Fall and then went dormant.  They've sprung up this year - a bit behind the other cultivars like Jack of Diamonds  and Queen of Hearts - and have their small flowers putting on a little Spring show.   Here, below, are both of them showing up for their first Spring: This one below is interplanted with tulips:

What's that you see?  It is a native, ephemeral named Virginia Bluebells.  Two clumps of them to be specific.  Where did they come from?  Our generous neighbor who has them in her garden.  I was talking with her over the fence - admiring them - and she said:  why don't you take some??  How nice, right?    I've posted about these a few times over the years - first...with a post in Fall 2021 from Erin the Impatient Gardener who talks about how great these natives are in her garden.  And then...I spotted them showing up 'under the fence' from our neighbor's garden last Spring .   Our neighbor has these growing just beyond the fence in a bed that includes a groundcover of Vinca and a bunch of natives - including these Bluebells.  This piece from U of Wisconsin Extension Office of Horticulture is a good overview including a note that these are increasingly 'rare' and that they don't transplant well.   I decided to plant them close to where they have bee

We have our first bloom of the year:  an inherited (and...I'm pretty SURE naturalized) Snow Crocus.  The purple petals stand out against the brown mulch and other decaying matter in the far back of our yard.  You'll notice some green tips in the photo below.  What are those?  Pretty sure they're Wild Onions.  But, I'm not letting those rain on my parade here.  Snow Crocus (Crocus sieberi) is here for just a brief bit - a Spring Ephemeral. I haven't posted about this Snow Crocus on the blog, but I know it has been here since we moved in to Downers Grove.  Not sure how it got here, but glad it is here.   This U of I extension explainer is a pretty good read on Snow Crocuses .  From Ryan Pankau who writes the Garden Scoop Blog says that Snow Crocus is the first sign of Spring in his yard.  And, he talks about how they arrived: So, how did this beauty of spring wind up randomly dispersed across our yard? They have come to occupy my yard (and many others in North Ameri

Just yesterday, I posted a photo showing off the Carex Albicans that The Bird planted as ground cover in her little backyard garden and talked about how that marked the 12th sedge that we've planted in the backyard.   I had posted about planting a little cluster of four Carex Bromoides earlier this Summer and included a video from Roy Diblik where he talks about his favorite Carex and how he combines them.  In that video, he talked about Bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis (Little Midge).  And how to combine them together with a dominant species and 'islands' of other species in various percentages.   That video pushed me to think about how I can use some of these in our landscape and how to create a unique pattern that is unique to our garden and isn't a 'monoculture'.   When we were up at Northwind in Wisconsin, I came home with some of the Carexes that Roy talked about:  Eight Carex Bromoides.  And Two Carex muskingumensis Little Midge.  When p

I was doing a little garden walk this past week when I noticed something new poking thru the bottom of the fence.  It was tall and had blue flowers at the top of the flower stalk.  Could it be? Might it be?  Sure enough....have a look at the photo below and let's talk about what this flower is via our neighbor's garden: That's a little naturalized Virginia Bluebell that has crept over (under) the fenceline.  I wrote about these Spring Ephemerals back in September here and included them in my 2022 plant wish list.    And, #2 on my 2022 to-do list was to plant perennials that work across four-seasons where I mentioned the idea of a Spring Ephemeral like Virginia Bluebells .   This feels like a gift, right? A little colony of Mertensia virginica that exists next door has drifted over the past few years, but I've always removed it. Why? Because I didn't 'get to know' this plant until last year. So, this year? I'm encouraging it to stay here and maybe e

When I did the series of posts showing off the various plant materials that I brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale, I forgot to include a couple of plants that I bought.  I showed the Little Honey Hydrangeas , Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas and the three Ivory Prince Hellebores .  But, I also brought home two grasses:  Prairie dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis.  Here (below) is a look at the two grasses: And, here below, is the sign from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale where they describe Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis as "Prairie native grasss that is extremely tough. Makes a great natural addition to the home landscape with beautiful, dense and arching clumps of fine textured leaves.  Flowers have a unique fragrance." The University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension Office has a page on Prairie Dropseed that provides a few more details : It was was named a Plant of Merit by the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2005 and was selected

This weekend we popped into the Garden Show at Wannemakers and it was a lot of fun and a really welcome pop of gardening as we wind down Winter.  A bunch of things were on sale (Trellises were 10% off) and they had some hardy annuals like pansies for sale, too.  But, they also had some vendors with little tables set up including a local pond and koi group, the Downer Grove Garden Walk and these folks from American Beauties Native Plants .  They were handing out buttons - which...I of course - glommed on to one of them.  It isn't a Disney Pin, but I think I'll put it up on the board in the garage none-the-less. We inherited a few Native trees on hand in our yard including the Catalpas and the Kentucky Coffee Trees.  I planted a Pagoda Dogwood  and a Chinkapin Oak that I bought at a local sale in Glen Ellyn.   Last year, I tried to grow a few Kentucky Coffee Tree seedlings from seed and this year, I'm going to do the same with Catalpas.   The button calls out how native plant

I somehow (somehow!) have really failed to post about my visit(s) - yes...multiple visits this year - to Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin.  Home nursery to Roy Diblik - who I've posted about before here on the blog.  I have a tag up for the place, but when I was taking about some hostas this past week, I mentioned that I planted some Japanese Forest Grasses - Hakonechloa Macra Hakone Grass - and realized I never got around to posting some photos of those visits.   Well, today, I correct that miss. Starting with a photo of a display of something people call Scottish Lovage - but is exclusive to Northwind in Wisconsin.  That photo is below - showing off a couple dozen 1# containers of Ligusticum scoticum.   The sign reads:  "Compact, upright, clump-forming perennial.  Glossy leaves with umbels of tiny, white flowers.  Beautiful seed heads." The second sign provides the pedigree:  "This plant is highly regarded at the Chicago Art Institute.  Northwind is the only

Back in the shady parts of our yard, along the fence, we have these plants that come up in various spots.  My assumption is that they're weeds of some sort and for the past few years, I've been pulling them.  But, this year, I learned about Mayapples from Erin the Impatient Gardener .   Looking at what she shows off as Mayapples , I wondered if this mult-lobe'd plant was, potentially Mayapple.   The Missouri Botanic Garden has a listing up about Mayapple - or Podophyllum peltatum  - where they talk about it being used in naturalized gardens and talks about how it disappears during the Summer : ...native Missouri wildflower that occurs in both moist and dry woodland areas throughout the State. From a single stem, each plant grows 12-18" tall and features one or two, deeply-divided, palmately-lobed, umbrella-like, pale green leaves (to 12" diameter). Excellent for naturalizing in woodland settings, wild or native plant gardens. Because plants naturalize freely but

 This is the third post showing off a newly acquired plant from this Spring's Morton Arboretum Plant Sale - the first two were when I added three more All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses and two Amber Queen Barrenworts .  Both of those were additional plants that I bought last year and added more this year.  I also bought a couple of plants that are net new to me:  both the type and the particular cultivar.  I'll also admit that this particular plant is OFF plan, but I saw it on one of Erin the Impatient Gardener's Instagram posts and added it to my list.  She talked about how it puts on a really nice Fall show and while it flowers, she grows it mostly for the foliage.  Here's one of her posts showing this off below: View this post on Instagram A post shared by ERIN 🌿 The Impatient Gardener (@impatientgardener) So, when I saw a version of it at the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Sale, I bought a couple.  With the newly expanded beds and the "moved