From commentor JAM:
I have become interested in native plants and I’m trying to add only natives from now on, preferably Oklahoma natives. I’ve mostly done that so far by buying native perennial seeds whenever I see them in the local stores, but that strategy has run its course because there aren’t that many widely available. This fall I will be planting seeds I ordered online.
All the flowers in these pictures are native except for the cypress vine, which is from Mexico and S. America. (It can also be invasive, BTW.)
The red sunflower in the top pic is Velvet Queen. I don’t know what the yellow one is but I thought it looked interesting.
Black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia hirta). The rudbeckia was a little surprise that I had forgotten I planted this spring, but it doesn’t match the variety on the seed packet, so I’m not sure what it is.
The red Cypress Vine is just starting to bloom. It’s a morning glory relative that reseeds itself every year.
Mealycup sage (salvia farinacea). The salvias have been growing in my garden for years and they are extremely attractive to all sorts of bees.
I think the bumblebees love hibiscus because they get to sit down to eat. They also sleep inside the flowers when they close in the afternoons.
This is a new tomato for me called Burgundy Traveler — it has been extremely productive so far.
I wish my neighbor who loved cucumbers hadn’t moved away this year.
I tried to grow catnip from seed sown outdoors last year, but the cats found them and destroyed them at the seedling stage. So when I saw this sickly looking rootbound plant on the clearance table, I decided to try one more time. This time I was able to nurse the plant back to health before the cats found it, although you wouldn’t know that by looking at it now.
This cat is Pierre. The insanely overgrown rootball turned out to be protective, because I’m sure without that they would have pulled it out of the pot.
***********
I know it’s a busy season for us gardeners, but — Send me more photos, people!
We finally got our first ripe full-sized tomatoes this week! A full-sized Momotaro Gold (highly recommended for flavor), and a couple of Cherokee Purples (predictably among the first and last producers every year). Lots of green globes swelling nicely…
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
VeniceRiley
Budlia starting, butterflies abounded while we were away on vacation. Roses still going strong
.
WereBear
Did not get my roses! Sigh. But I love those native plants!
Mel
Pierre made me laugh out loud.
Our late, great kitty Brunhilde used to tear entire parsley and mint plants out of their pots in the kitchen, and then gleefully race through the entire house, four or five circuits with them, rootballs dropping dirt the whole way. The Dustbuster became my good friend during Brunhilde’s reign!
Mel
@VeniceRiley: What kinds of roses do you grow? I used to grow a few old ramblers on the fenceline, and some Bourbons (oh, the beautiful fragrance!), but haven’t had any for about 10 years (health issues, etc.).
I miss them!
satby
I keep wanting to grow sunflowers, but I suspect bunnies eat the seedlings as soon as they come up. I love that Velvet Queen one!
I just took some pictures last night AL. I’ll send you some.
Today after coffee for the UUs I have to prune and treat all my roses. The cycles of rain followed by high heat and higher humidity have got some spots starting on the foliage. NONE of them are blooming.
Betsy
I love Pierre!!
Maybe there is a botanical garden in Oklahoma that sells native perennials or seeds?
I’ve had good luck with Johnny’s catalog for flower seeds.
With you — natives are awesome and perennials are the least work. I let what thrives, thrive, and get scads of returning purple confeflowers, brown-eyed susans, blue ageratum, and a very fancy cultivated type of goldenrod called ‘Fireworks’ every year. They crowd out the weeds almost completely. I add tithonia and zinnias as annuals to beef up the color mix.
Jeffg166
Such a summer garden. Says it all.
I have grown catnip from seed this year. It is in a pot in a cage. When I move the whole thing into the ground I have an old metal milk crate I will put over it.
Whatever grow out of the milk crate is what the cats of the neighborhood get to chomp on.
The milk crate stay on it year round. I have looked out the kitchen window during the winter in the past to where I had planted it n the ground to see a cat rolling around on the ground where it is planted. If I don’t protect the base it gets eliminated by the assault.
Jeffg166
@satby: I find birds love new seedling sprouts. They are full of vitamins and other nutrients. Lost many nasturtiums until I started to cover them until they got true leaves.
OzarkHillbilly
Nice pics JAM, thanx much.
I sure hope they aren’t as invasive as morning glory.
I planted one in my herb garden. BIG mistake as it has taken over that corner and wants more, more, and more, always more. I’m gonna dig up the rootball this fall/winter and hope I get all the rootlets too. Growing it in a pot is the right idea.
My veggie garden has become fruitful. I am still picking only grape and cherry tomatoes but more are on the vines and I am hopeful that what with all the rain we’ve been having the squirrels will allow my wife and I to eat a few. Sweet peppers have been kind to us so far and the jalapenos are just getting started.
The cucumbers are going into overdrive and I’m going to set up the crock in the next day or so. The melons are looking good, but it will be few weeks yet before we taste them. The green beans are satisfying my wife’s persistent jonesing for them and the various dried beans are looking like a good year for me.
Usually I plant my Romanesco zucchinis by July 4th but because the squash bugs found them anyway last year, I decided to wait another week or 2. So around about the 15th I amended a couple of mounds with a bucket of compost on each and then went in search of the seeds.
I’m still looking for them.
eclare
Love Pierre!
JPL
Beautiful flowers and I’m jealous, but I do plan on adding more flowers to my yard next year. Thanks for sharing pictures of your garden with us.
JPL
@eclare: Hi, How was your movie experience?
scribbler
@satby: OT, but in an earlier thread you linked to a root killer for pipes that doesn’t kill trees. I couldn’t get the link to work but I’d love to know what this product is. Any chance you could post the link again?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
JPL
@rikyrah: Good Morning!
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Another Scott
@scribbler: It’s in #69 in John’s flood disaster thread downstairs.
HTH!
(On my phone…)
Cheers,
Scott.
eclare
@JPL:
Loved Barbie! So good.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: That link does not work. Not for me anyway.
eta: actually it gives me the finger, so maybe it is working as intended.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: Hmm. Yeah, that’s a mangled URL. Sorry.
This seems to be it: Roebic Root Killer
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
I did not know this. I wonder if the bees are aware of it, and linger a bit.
“Oh, sorry my queen, I would have been busily working all afternoon but I was trapped by the hibiscus again, and had to take a siesta.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: Wow, I don’t know how you did that, I couldn’t get nothing out of it. (don’t bother even trying to explain it to me, just say, “It’s magic!”)
mrmoshpotato
Get it together, bacon and lettuce crops!
Steeplejack
I believe this is the root killer in question: Roebic root killer.
JeanneT
Good morning!
What’s happening in my garden? Well, I never did clean up my raised beds, and they are lush with lambs quarter, purslane and yellow wood sorrel. I believe all of these are edible, though I haven’t tried cooking with them yet.
Most of my daylilies have survived my neglect and are starting to flower. My biennial black eyed Susans have wandered out from the flower beds and taken over part of my back lawn. I expect lots of birds and butterflies when those flower and go to seed.
I’ve been playing with the thought of adding a watering station for birds and butterflies, but haven’t done anything about it yet….. Birds seem abundant this year, butterflies somewhat less so, and I have seen very few of the bee family, except for paper wasps.
I did have a bonus wildlife event last week: skunks have been exploring the edges of my deconstructing yard, and of course my two dogs surprised them and got thoroughly drenched. Luckily I had a four-pack of Skunk–Off on hand, and it worked surprisingly well.
LiminalOwl
Pierre! And the Velvet Queen is beautiful. I’ve only ever seen yellow sunflowers. (All the pictures are beautiful, thank you for sharing them.)
We don’t have a yard. I wonder about growing catnip indoors.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh ho ho it’s magic you know…
(I just looked at the text after the http, and poked around at the main site.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Wanderer
Last September a terrible storm hit Prince Edward Island and blew down 7 mature trees on our property there. I now have a sunny backyard and for the first time am planting a small perennial garden. We are here for the summer so I hope to get the plants settled in before we return to US.
delphinium
Lovely photos-that Velvet Queen is stunning! Have only grown tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) in my yard.
@Ken: LOL!
rikyrah
Man plays trombone in field… This happens😁😁
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZT88pNbft/
OzarkHillbilly
I couldn’t even get that to come up. Like I said, all I got was the finger.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Ha! He literally played until the cows came home!
satby
@Another Scott: Thanks Scott! I went back to bed for a little nap since I woke up at 3 and just saw the request from scribbler. That seems to happen when I use share from Amazon instead of just copying the link.
I once was told by a plumber (regarding septic tank safe and effective stuff) that Roebic is a good brand for plumbing needs.
@Steeplejack: and thanks to you too Steep! Hope you got some rest and the power stayed on.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Now that’s a cattle call. What a chorus!
satby
@rikyrah: Did not know cows were such Lorde fans.
JAM
@OzarkHillbilly: They are somewhat invasive, but they seem to stay in the area where you plant them and are easy to pull up.
Jackie
@Jeffg166: Genius! I will def try the cage/milk crate method! I, too, couldn’t grow catnip – I had one cat who was absolutely addicted to it! I thought I’d outsmarted him by hanging it 7 feet high, far away from anything he could climb or jump from to get to it. Nope! I watched him crouch then spring up and clamber onto the basket… that’s when I told him I give up!
Garth was indoor/outdoor kitty. I got him indoors at night by tapping on the Tupperware lid I kept the catnip in. Which I kept safely by storing in a cupboard with a childproof lock.
JAM
@Jeffg166: That’s a great idea with the milk crate. I have a decorative birdcage for potted plants in the garage somewhere- I should put it in that.
Miss Bianca
@Ken: Man, that would be me as a worker bee! :)
JAM
@Betsy: There was a native plant nursery nearby in Tulsa, but they closed recently. I have ordered a few vegetable seeds from Johnny’s, I’ll have to see what they have available.
kindness
My Cherokee Purples just gave me my first BLT offering. Lots of green ones on the plants. They seem to take their time ripening, but sure are tasty when they finally do.
Yarrow
@JAM:
There’s a chapter of the Oklahoma Native Plant Society that meets in Tulsa. Link. Those meetings can be great, not only because you learn about native plants in your area, but people may bring cuttings or seedlings to share and you can get free native plants.
Gvg
Fresh potting soil seems to attract critters and I have to protect all seedlings. Years ago I learned to make covers from “hardware cloth” which is just 1/2 inch gap galvanized woven wire mesh sold in rolls. I make covers that can cover up 4 trays of seedlings. I used to do them just 6” high but lately I have made them a foot high too so I can grow bigger things or root cuttings. You can make any size protective cage to save a plant and leave as long as you need. There are rolls with bigger gaps too, or chicken wire. I sew the sides with thin wire. My covers are just a rectangle with the 4 corners cut out square, sides bent in at 90 degrees and sewn together to make a box top. Set on top of what I want to protect. Stack in corner when not in use.
this summer everything is eating my ornamental ginger shoots so they can’t grow and flower. I have put the cages on top of the shoots to protect. This is first year I have had this problem. Though other people had complained. I think my wildlife had not learned about the gingers before but somebody found out.
JAM
@mrmoshpotato: I know, it’s too bad you can only grow lettuce when it’s too cold for ripe tomatoes.
In the South now
Native plants are my passion here in Chatham county NC. It started early 2022 when a resident of our very large HOA started advocating and educating for native plants, explaining the who, what, why, how, and where, and even starting her own business selling them. I’ve gone from a standard, non-native very sparse landscape on my 0.1 acre lot to about 200 native plants and the pollinators are abundant. If I could figure out how to share photos, I would. It’s not enough and most of our roughly 6,000 neighbors could not care less about the destruction that is happening all around us as rural Chatham county is beginning to explode with growth and thousands of acres are clear cut for subdivisions.
StringOnAStick
@JAM: Be sure to plant Redbirds in a Tree, a TX wildflower perennial that survives zone 5 winters; hummingbirds go crazy for it and it blooms from June until frost. It gets tall (5′ this year for us) and is a little rangy, but mix it in the Whirling Butterflies (Gaura) and tall Echinacea and it’s lovely.
The multicolored Echinacea variety I started from seed two years ago are going nuts right now; it’s glorious and the butterflies love them. I specifically planted as many pollinator plants as I could in that garden and I continue to see new kinds of native bees, bumblebees, and hoverflies with all kinds of sizes and camouflage patterns. I recently did a heavy prune on a neglected oak street tree, and yesterday I cut up the branches into uniform lengths so I could build another insectiary wall for mason bees and whoever else like a to nest in nooks, crannies and the holes I will still into the ends of the bigger diameter lengths of wood.
StringOnAStick
I have a Velvet Queen sunflower that’s doing well but I let a seedhead form seeds and a squirrel almost destroyed the plant by climbing up it, severing that seed head and running off with it.
JAM
@StringOnAStick: The red birds plant looks a little like another plant I grow called salvia greggii, autumn sage. It’s another plant that hummingbirds really love. I am starting a new bed so I will have to try that one, too.
Yarrow
@JAM: A local garden center used to have a cat. They put their catnip inside a birdcage. Whatever grew outside it the cat could have but it kept it safe.
Catnip is in the mint family and like mint can really take over, so a pot is always a good option.
eldorado
if you have your card you can apply for seeds through the cherokee seed bank. this may or may not align with you native plant goals but its a resource.
pasting link because i am on my phone
https://webapps.cherokee.org/SeedBank/Home/About
scribbler
@Another Scott: @Steeplejack: Very belated but thank you both!!
JAM
@In the South now: I would really love to see your garden. You should email some pictures to Anne for the chat!