Nature's Garden

[Beth_B]

Lovely photos! I have a patch of wild geranium too, although mine is pink (and l forgot to tell the new lawn guy where it was so he mowed it down last week. It's already coming back up though.

JB you inspired me to specifically look for native perennials. To my delight l found that my favourite local garden center has a section dedicated to them! I just planted butterfly bushes, coneflowers and milkweed. Can't wait for flowers!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Lovely photos! I have a patch of wild geranium too, although mine is pink (and l forgot to tell the new lawn guy where it was so he mowed it down last week. It's already coming back up though.

JB you inspired me to specifically look for native perennials. To my delight l found that my favourite local garden center has a section dedicated to them! I just planted butterfly bushes, coneflowers and milkweed. Can't wait for flowers!

That's great! though Butterfly Bush is non-native and invasive.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Went hiking the other day and saw a few things in nature's garden.

Coreopsis, not exactly sure what kind, possibly Lance-leaf Tickseed. and invasive Ox-eye Daisy in the background.

Wild Strawberries, which is why I went on my hike! Didn't find as many as I hoped for but there were still quite a few along the trail.

Lastly, this Swamp Milkweed was getting buds on it.

Here's what I found while camping last month:

Wild Columbine

Wild Geranium

Wild Lupine

Shooting Star

Yellow Star Grass

 

[JBtheExplorer]

A few more flowers on my walk today. This is a small habitat restoration on a street corner. I would love to see more of these in the US. They integrated about a half mile pathway through it, and people use it frequently. It's amazing how many people bring their kids or pets to it. I can't believe this isn't more common.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Watched fireworks from the edge of a small prairie habitat restoration. Summer flowers were blooming everywhere!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

While on a hike yesterday, I saw this Pearl Crescent Butterfly on a Lanceleaf Tickseed flower. This is the first time I've ever seen this butterfly.

 

[kgord]

That is a beautiful butterfly picture. I rarely see butterflies around this area, and have thougt about actually planting a butterfly bush so I could see more of them. I think they are some of the nicest looking species. It gives people a way to look at some of the more colorful options that nature has to offer. I think it is outstanding actually.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

That is a beautiful butterfly picture. I rarely see butterflies around this area, and have thougt about actually planting a butterfly bush so I could see more of them. I think they are some of the nicest looking species. It gives people a way to look at some of the more colorful options that nature has to offer. I think it is outstanding actually.

I would recommend against it. Butterfly Bush is highly invasive here in the US, and some states are even beginning to ban it. On top of that, it also does not attract butterflies nearly as much as it's name would suggest, and was named that only as a marketing strategy. It is not nearly as beneficial to butterflies as native plants are.

Consider planting a mixture of natives, like Orange Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, Meadow Blazing Star, and Purple Coneflower (the true native, not cultivars or hybrids). Plants like those will attract all sorts of butterflies.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Spent a couple days camping at the largest wet-prairie in the US, well at least east of the Mississippi River. There were plenty of native plants in bloom. I didn't photograph them all, but I did take a few photos while I was there.

Flowering Spurge

Brown-eyed Susan

Sawtooth Sunflower(?)

Rough Blazing Star

Milkweed Tussock caterpillar on Common Milkweed

Goldenrod

Morning in the Scuppernong Prairie.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

The season of Asters has begun. Asters are the latest blooming flowers here. Once you see them, you know the season's winding down.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I haven't posted anything in Nature's Garden for a long time, but today's a great day for a new post. I went on a hike at a local nature sanctuary and a lot of native plant species were blooming. I didn't photograph everything, but wish I would've. Here's just some of the flowers I came across today. I'm pretty jealous, because I don't have any of these amazing native plants in my native garden.

Prairie Smoke

Shooting Stars

White Trout Lily

Red Trillium

White Trillium

Phlox

Virginia Blue Bells

 

[Becky]

What fantastic photos! I'm glad to see such a colourful update

 

[Larisa]

Here in the forest everything is so modest, but pretty.

 

[MaryMary]

Photography is one of my favorite hobbies. Truth is, it's deeper than that, though. I hope that the better I can capture nature, the more people will respect it after seeing my photos.

JB, have you ever thought about submitting any of your shots to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower website? I've been going to that site to "window shop" for what seeds I want to buy, and I've got to say, not many of the pictures they have are as pretty as yours.

As I've said before, you piqued my interest in natives enough that I found that website. I needed to know if blue-eyed grass was native to Ohio. I fell in love with blue-eyed grass because of your pictures.

They have 15 pictures of blue-eyed grass. Take a look. None of them made me catch my breath and say "Oooh!!" http://www.wildflower.org/gallery/species.php?id_plant=SIAN3

Looking at their pictures of it, I wouldn't have been enticed to order seeds online the way I did.
Does it bloom the first year?

 

[tbendl]

Wow that's a great idea Mary! I agree with her, your pictures are wonderful and what a great way to share them.