Sedum Frosty Morn is cold hardy Sedum erythrostictum



Sedum Frosty Morn

Sedum Frosty Morn was discovered in Japan. Plantsman Barry Yinger gave some to Tony Advent of Plant Delights Nursery in the 1990's. They max out at 2-feet tall and the photo is ours blooming at the rock border of the hot and sunny herb bed. It's been in bloom for a month so far. MO Botanical Gardens says the flowers turn pink in the fall - way cool. Here's their link to more info http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/t600/sedum-erythrostictum-frosty-morn.aspx

Cold hardy zones 3 to 9, full sun, don't keep the roots wet and don't over fertilize.

OK Invasive Plants Conference July 9 near OKC

Priscilla Crawford, Conservation Specialist with the Oklahoma Biological Survey said that their conference is coming up in July - here's the scoop for pre-registration.
In case you aren't aware of what OK Dirty Dozen is, I put it at the end of Crawford's post.

The Oklahoma Invasive Plant Council's Annual meeting will be held
Tuesday, July 9, 2013,
Arcadia Conservation Education Area
From OKC - North on 1-35, exit 138D,
2 mi E on Memorial Rd, 3/4 mi N on Midwest Blvd.

Pre-registration and abstracts for oral and poster presentations are due July 1st. Please note: Pre-registration will allow us to more accurately estimate for catered lunches!

Topics to be presented are:

Feral hogs and their relationship with invasive plants
Tinker Air Force Base: Invasive Plants
The Horticulture Industry: Issues with invasive plants
Oklahoma's Dirty Dozen
Prescribed Burn Associations in Oklahoma: Update
Voucher Specimens Needed for Accurate Records of Invasive Plants
Plus More!!!!

Read the announcement at: http://eepurl.com/ALbPz

OkIPC Website: http://ok-invasive-plant-council.org/ 


Japanese Honeysuckle

The Dirty Dozen

In the early 1900’s, Yellow Bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum) was introduced from Southern Europe and Asia for livestock forage and erosion control. Today, this exotic grass is prevalent throughout the state, altering soil conditions and microorganisms as well as suppressing important native grasses with the end result of decreasing the diversity of native animal communities
Over the past 60 years Field Brome (Bromus arvensis) has been outcompeting desirable vegetation for water and soil nutrients, inevitably decreasing biodiversity in native ecosystems. Field brome was originally introduced from Eurasia for the purpose of erosion control and use as a cover crop. This species is now scattered throughout Oklahoma, with the exception of the northeast corner.
Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is not only spreading across Oklahoma, but all of North America as well. It was originally introduced when used as a transport packing material from the Mediterranean region of Europe. This aggressive species is notorious for forming monocultures and completely displacing native species as well as decreasing crop production.
Musk/Nodding Thistle (Carduus nutans) was accidentally introduced, possibly through ballast water or as seed contaminant in the late 1800’s. It is mainly found in the north half of the state, east of Woodward, and scattered throughout south central and extreme southeast Oklahoma. Musk/nodding is a listed noxious weed in Oklahoma, due to the its ability to crowd out native vegetation and forage for livestock and wildlife.
Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) has become a common evergreen woody species found across the state. Even though this species is native to parts of Oklahoma, fire suppression and planting, as shelterbelts and to screen visability, has allowed Eastern Redcedar to dominate habitats where it should not be found. Dense stands of cedar force out native grass and woody species, decreasing biodiversity and increasing fuel loads which increase the risk of wildfire.
In 1899, Sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata), a native to China and Japan, was planted for erosion control and as an additional food source for Bobwhite Quail. It has now spread throughout the state, except the panhandle, proven to not be a good food source for Bobwhite Quail, and is rapidly outcompeting and displacing native herbaceous and woody species, destroying habitat quality for wildlife and forage production for livestock.
The Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense) was brought from China as an ornamental shrub, but was discovered to form dense thickets, shading out native species of the understory. This exotic plant can now be found in the eastern third of Oklahoma and scattered in the southwest part of the state.
Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) was imported for deer browse, erosion control, and as an ornamental in the early 1800’s. Today, this evergreen vine from Japan inhabits the eastern half of the state as well as Jackson, Caddo, Comanche, Grady, and Ellis counties, overtaking native herbaceous and woody vegetation
In the 1870’s the prickly Russian Thistle (Salsola tragus) was accidentally introduced from Eurasia as a seed contaminant in flax seed. This species becomes the tumbleweed that clog fence lines and host leafhopper species which carry Curly Top virus in multiple crop species. It is now found in the western half of the state and panhandle, as well as Bryan and Muskogee counties.
Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense) was popularized as livestock forage and for hay production, but under certain conditions it can actually become toxic to livestock. It was introduced from the Mediterranean region around the 1830’s, and has now spread across the entire state of Oklahoma. It invades all stages of rangeland succession, reducing biodiversity and habitats for many species of wildlife.
Saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) is an eastern Asian shrub that was brought in as an ornamental and for erosion control. Originally introduced in 1823, Saltcedar has now spread statewide altering streamflow and overtaking many food producing pants for wildlife as well as other native wetland and floodplain plants that wildlife depend on for habitat.
Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila) is native to China, Siberia, and Turkestan but was brought to America in the 1860’s as a replacement for the American Elm after the breakout of Dutch Elm disease. It is now found to alter wildlife habitat and impact native floodplain vegetation water usage. Today, Siberian Elm can be found in Woods, Woodward, Alfalfa, Cleveland, and Mayes counties.

---

Gallery of Some of the Invasive Species
Troubling Oklahoma Today!

Aquatic Species
Alternanthera philoxeroides, Alligator weed
Hydrilla verticillata, Hydrilla
Myriophyllum aquaticum, Parrot's feather
Myriophyllum spicatum, Eurasian watermilfoil
Potamogeton crispus, Curlyleaf pondweed
Riparian and Wetland Species
Lythrum salicaria, Purple loosestrife
Perilla frutescens, Beefsteak plant
Saccharum ravennae, Revennagrass
Tamarix species, Salt cedar, tamarisk
Terrestrials Species
Albizia julibrissin, Mimosa, silk tree
Bothriochloa bladhii, Caucasian bluestem
Bromus japonicus, Japanese brome
Bromus racemosus, Meadow brome
Cirsium arvense, Canadian thistle
Cirsium vulgare, Bull thistle
Conium maculatum, Poison hemlock
Convolvulus arvensis, Field bindweed
Kochia scoparia, Mexican fireweed
Microstegium vimineum, Nepalese browntop
Potentilla recta, Sulfur cinquefoil
Pueraria montana, Kudzu
Rosa multiflora, Multiflora rose
Verbascum thapsus, Common mullein

Vanderbilt's online Tree ID

If your yard is anything like ours, trees pop up willy nilly and about half the time we aren't sure

Wikipedia

whether to pull them up, move them or leave them where the birds planted them.

Vanderbilt University's tree ID site couldn't be any easier to use for trees common to TN and similar climates.

Check it out at
http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/tree-key/tree-key.htm


For Native & Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia and similar climates, go to this link
at Name that Plant.

In or near Minnesota? Check out Key Plants appearing in the Field Guides to Native Plant Communities of Minnesota: Forests and Woodlands.

Northeastern Shrub and Short Tree Identification online book is at http://www.esf.edu/ivm/PDFs/ShrubID%20preview.pdf

Trees of Texas: Tree Identification 101 is at http://www.isatexas.com/images/pdf_files/TreeID/Key_to_Texas_Tree_Species_TFS.pdf

The Huachuca Audubon Society has a tree key for AZ and NM at
http://www.huachuca-audubon.org/TREE_KEY.pdf

You get the idea - there is a tree ID website for each of us!

St. Joseph's Lily is Hippeastrum johnsonii

St. Joseph’s Lilies have been blooming around town since late May. They are one of the few Amaryllis that are cold hardy enough to be grown outside in our area. Other names include Hardy Amaryllis and Johnson’s Amaryllis

Hippeastrum Johnsonii is named for the plant breeder, watchmaker Arthur Johnson of Lancashire, UK, who created the first St. Joseph’s Lily in 1799. The parent plants were Hippeastrum reginae (from Peru) and Hippeastrum vittatum (from Brazil). Many other Lilies have been introduced but this one remains a favorite for gardeners who enjoy heritage plants with.

Johnson shared his new lily with the Liverpool Botanic Garden shortly before his greenhouses were destroyed and his original bulbs lost.

Its cold hardy zones are from 6 to 12 (we are zone 7) so it is often grown as a potted plant by gardeners farther north. Outside it wants sun to part-shade and like all bulbs, needs well-drained soil.

The flowers are red, bell-shaped with a white stripe. The throat of each flower is green. Each 1-2 foot tall stalk typically has four flowers, sometimes six. When grown indoors (forced with artificial light and heat) the stalks can grow very tall. Outside, in full sun the stalks will be closer to 8-inches tall.

After the flowers fade, seed pods form. The pods can be collected and the fresh seed planted directly into pots. Stored seeds will be less viable with slower and lower germination rates.

The leaves are strap-like, resembling other lilies. In areas where there is no hard freeze, the plants are evergreen all year. In full-sunlight the leaves take on a copper tone.

Howard Garrett, The Dirt Doctor (www.dirtdoctor.com), calls them the tulip of the south. They give us the bright red color we crave on cloudy spring days but do not require the prolonged cold weather that Holland-grown tulips need in order to bloom.

St. Joseph Lilies were offered in the US by 1853 but today few companies carry them. They have become pass-along plants, so while they are blooming, this is a good time to stop and ask for a bulb or two wherever you see them growing.

St. Joseph’s Lily bulbs are available from Bayou City Heirloom Bulbs in TX (http://bayoucityheirloombulbs.com). Owner Patty Allen said, “These bulbs were rescued from old homesteads. They are not from tissue culture.”

Another source, Brent and Becky’s Bulbs (https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com) says they will form clumps after the first two years in the ground.

Around town, there are several large clumps visible in older home gardens. The bulbs that were given to us by a gardening friend came from a 40-foot-long row that had expanded over 20-years.

Bulbs are divided after flowering in the spring or in the fall. Plant the bulbs in loosened, amended soil with the bulb neck above ground level. When deciding where to plant the bulbs, give them plenty of room. The leaves can grow to 30-inches long and 1.5 inches wide.

Plant Delights Nursery (www.plantdelights.com) offers alternatives. 1) Hippeastrum 'Charisma' (Charisma Hardy Hippeastrum) which is a solid red that resembles a red daylily; and, 2) Hippeastrum 'Voodoo' (Naughty Lady Amaryllis) closely resembles St. Joseph’s Lily but without the bright white stripe. They also have survived below zero temperatures at their zone 7 garden.

St. Joseph’s Lilies and all Hippeastrums are members of the Amaryllidaceae or onion family, making them deer and rabbit resistant.

In “Heirloom Gardening in the South” by Dr. Bill Welsh and Greg Grant, Grant said, "Without a doubt, Johnson's hybrid is the finest Amaryllis for garden culture in the South. The combination of the brilliant red flowers, spicy fragrance, and it’s unbelievable toughness makes it a bulb without equal".

Oklahoma - beautiful natural tour from Vogt's The Deep Middle

Tour Oklahoma through the eyes of Benjamin Vogt, a U. Nebraska English lecturer with a deep respect for nature, a find hand with a sentence, an extraordinary camera eye, and, well everything he touches. Click over to his blog to see the photos and description of our Oklahoma landscape at http://bit.ly/11TolVq. You can't miss his love for our state.

from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln
For the last five years, Benjamin Vogt has been writing the garden blog "The Deep Middle."

The project started as a way for the English lecturer to simply record the evolution of his garden. However, the blog — an infusion of gardening tips and selections from Vogt's published work — has bloomed into a medium that allows the writer and naturalist to connect with gardeners and writers around the world.

The blog, http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/, has helped establish friendships with garden aficionados from Vietnam, South Africa, France, England, Greece and Mexico. In addition to his traditional gardener following, Vogt has also had visits from best-selling authors.

“My work as a professor and writer is intertwined with having a gardening blog since I’m most interested in creative nonfiction and ecological issues — how writing about our lives actually gives us our lives and our world,” Vogt said. “I’d say it’s my main way to test environmental ideas and share my writing.”

Vogt began planting and developing his garden in July 2007. The main part of the garden is roughly 1,500 square feet at its southeast corner, with additional foundation beds along the back of his house.

Last summer, Vogt’s garden was part of a tour, and many of the 500 visitors asked if he offered coaching services. A week later, he started Monarch Gardens, a garden consulting business.

“I’ll walk their landscape and we’ll discuss what native plants might work well,” he said. “I also do nursery visits, provide plant research, deliver plants and suggest organic methods. Gardening is so easy. Honest.”

“I hope both the blog and Monarch Gardens encourage people to think about adding native plants to their landscapes,” he said. “Each suburban garden bed is now pretty much a wildlife refuge. Just one New England aster and swamp milkweed make a large difference and you’ll see it almost instantly.”

Vogt said he also hopes people will garden for kids because there’s so much for developing minds to see, touch, hear and experience.

“I’d love to have a part in creating a children’s prairie garden, even posting nature-y poems in the space,” he said.

Vogt’s next memoirs are on Oklahoma Territory, Mennonites, the Cheyenne and prairie ecosystems. His blog shares anecdotes about his research trips and family homesteading stories.

“I try to mix up posts about my garden, pictures, research and my own poetry and nonfiction,” he said. “It’s a Benjamin potpourri, and oddly, people of all stripes keep visiting.”

As Vogt researches plants, he’s come to favor natives because when they’re properly sited, they bring in more wildlife and are easier to care for.

“Gardening didn’t germinate until I had a house of my own,” he said. “I spend only a few days working on the garden each year and that’s it. No one believes me. Not even my mother.”

— Mekita Rivas, University Communications
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/vogt

Conservation, sustainability, National Wildlife Federation, Scotts

Donna at Garden Walk Garden Talk gave me food for thought and you'll be thinking after you read her smart post at http://gardenwalkgardentalk.com/2013/06/06/the-ruckus-accomplished-what/#comment-21829

Donna's perspective is from a professional viewpoint. The topic is the flap between NWF and Scotts
potential, though failed partnering for conservation.

A Year in the Garden - time lapse video

A must see video.
An LA CA family produced a time-lapse video of one year in their garden.

Click over to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApOtv2bPElw

Brad Hiebert said in the comments, "I want to encourage people to try. We didn't know how to do it when we started, but it is experince that is so rewarding!"

and  "The first year we could have bought the food cheaper because of the cost spent building. But, there is more to the equation
We ate a lot more vegetables than we would have because we grew way more than we would have bought.
No salmonella here
We got to spend family time outside
I get to teach my child where food comes from and see here snow peas and tomatoes off the vine
Home grown tomatoes taste better than anything bought
Never underestimate the therapeutic value of digging in the dirt."

For the love of wildlife - Carole Sevilla Brown

There is no doubt that Carole Sevilla Brown is a voice for wildlife on her blog and in her life.
If her name is new to you, do not hesitate, click over to her blog now http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/

This is Brown's entry "The Ultimate Guide to Butterfly Gardening" which is a thorough report (136 entries/resources) of how to accomplish all of your butterfly dreams
http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/guide-to-butterfly-gardening/#comment-35558

Monarch chrysalis on our fence

 Post after post, Brown impresses us with her love of nature and her smarts.

Her free, occasional, newsletter is Wren Song. You can sign up on her blog to receive it by email.

Spiderwort, Tradescantia, for moist shade

Each flower lasts but a single day but we love Spiderworts anyway. They bloom for several weeks with each plant producing waves of new triangle-shaped flowers.

Tuck them near the trunks of trees and shrubs or between perennials in a flower bed where they can get a little sun and they will multiply from one year to the next. Being near the roots of larger plants not only gives them cover from too much sun, but the larger plants absorb extra moisture so the Spiderworts have moist but well-drained soil to grow in.

Spiderworts can grow in full sunlight to full shade and will move to suit themselves. As nearby shrubs increase in size, Spiderwort plants will pop up in other places.

Some gardeners plant Spiderworts in containers to prevent the plants from spreading too much throughout their gardens. It is also very easy to pull up and thin out the tiny plants during early spring garden cleanup in order to control their inclination to naturalize.

If you want to try them in full sun, be sure to water them regularly to prevent scorching. Half a day of sun seems to work the best in our area.

Each little flower is a perfect three-petaled jewel-tone color spot son top of a stem that can be 6 to 36-inches tall. The stems are soft and the leaves resemble lily leaves, giving them their other common name, Spider Lily. They are cold hardy from USDA zones 4 through 11, are drought and wet tolerant, deer resistant, easy to grow and tolerate black walnut trees.

The most common Spiderwort is the American native Tradescantia virginiana. Woodland spiderwort, Tradescantia ernestaniana, Ernest's spiderwort or Red Cloud is native to OK, AL, AR, and MO. It is less aggressive than Ohio spiderwort. Plants and seeds are available from Easy Wildflowers in MO (http://www.easywildflowers.com). Tharp’s Spiderwort, Tradescantia tharpii, is native from TX to KS.

Plant Woodland Spiderwort with other native woodland wildflowers like Columbine, Green Dragon, American Spikenard, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Goat's Beard, Wild Ginger, Wild Geranium, Virginia Bluebells, Woodland Phlox, Jacob's Ladder, ferns and other shade flowers.

When the flowers fade, cut the plants all the way down. New growth will appear and a second bloom season will come when the weather cools in the fall. Divide the clumps early in the fall or when the leaves emerge in the spring. If they go to seed and seedlings come up near the parent plants, they can be lifted and planted elsewhere.

The flowers attract butterflies from May to July and the seed heads attract gold finches. At the end of the bloom season the fading stems and leaves turn yellow so Spiderworts are usually planted in a natural area or where summer blooming flowers can hide them. Spider Lilies self-clean so they do not have to be deadheaded.

In addition to the natives, there are over 60 Tradescantia species.

Tradescantia pallida, commonly called Purple Queen, Purple Heart and Purple Spiderwort is primarily grown for its deep purple leaves since the tiny tri-corner pink blooms can barely be seen in a flower bed.

Tradescantia fluminensis, commonly called Creeping Christian or Wandering Jew is hardy in zones 7-9 and is often grown as a houseplant. A close relative, Tradescantia pallida purpurea, commonly called Purple Wandering Jew is also a great shade plant to grow as annuals under trees.

Tradescantia andersoniana Osprey is named for the bird of the same name. It has white flowers with blue stamen filaments (available from www.forestfarm.com). Other white flowering varieties include Bilberry Ice, Snowcap, Iris Prichard and Innocence (see http://www.marysplantfarm.com).

Spiderwort plants are not only edible and medicinal; they are also used by scientists to detect radiation fallout (http://bit.ly/dNX8DH).

Eradicate Invasive Plants by Teri Dunn Chace

We only have a few acres but it's enough to have dozens of plants show up each spring that make us ask ourselves whether they are friend or foe.

The birds plant some things we want to keep but many others are unknown or unwelcome. Here's an incredible online resource with lists and 20 links to sites that will help identify uninvited guests http://www.namethatplant.net/aliens.shtml

Some known plants are just plain pests to us because they are too much of a wild thing. Millions of elm trees and several square miles of wild daisies, henbit, thistle, Wandering Jew, wild garlic - oh, the list goes on.

"How to Eradicate Invasive Plants" by Teri Chace should be on the shelf of libraries, master gardener offices and in gardeners homes - it will go a long way toward speeding up the decision making process every spring.

Online booksellers offer it for $14. From the publisher, Timber Press, it is $25.

The author's bio from the Timber Press website -"Teri Dunn Chace is a writer and editor with more than 30 consumer titles in publication, including The Anxious Gardener's Book of Answers. She's also written and edited extensively for Horticulture, North American Gardener, Backyard Living, and Birds & Blooms. She has been managing editor for a variety of gardening titles, among them Gardening Basics for Dummies, The New England Gardener's Resource Guide, The Texas Gardener's Resource Guide, Lewis Hill's celebrated Pruning Made Easy and his Lawn & Gardener's Owner's Manual, and The Weather-Resilient Garden. Raised in California and educated at Bard College in New York, Teri has gardened in a variety of climate zones and soil types, from inner-city Portland, Oregon, to coastal Massachusetts. She now lives in a small upstate New York village with snowy winters and glorious summers."

Not all the plants Chace identifies as weeds are considered problems by us because we have enough space to tolerate their presence and we actually value their contribution. One example is Hawthorn which we grow for winter bird food. Another is a patch of Staghorn Sumac that we have hidden behind shrubs because insects and birds love them.

With that said, Chace provides photos, descriptions, chemical and non-chemical eradication methods.