Spring ! ?

Unseasonably warm here in Minneapolis this week. Today was warmer than yesterday, and yesterday was a high of 67, I think. A new record. No snow left in most places, except in the shade. Early Spring. Will this warmth remain, or will we get socked by some end of season Winter storm ? Stay tuned...
Pussy willows are full and grey, and the trees around town are already starting their Spring yellow-green tinge thing...that beautiful signal that all things chlorophyll are awakening, and ready to begin processing pure sunlight into beautiful structure. Exuberant, windblown, insect-assisted plant sex is about to explode for its brief annual moment. Every season has its place, but I love Spring ! And another note for the phenological record; I saw 2 different Mourning Cloak butterflies today, the earliest I've seen. They may have been the same butterfly, can't be sure, but they were hours and blocks apart. I, with the plants and certain mammals, come out of a certain slumber, and awaken to a different level in the warmth and activity of Spring.

Fall to Winter-The Great Sleep

Winter starkness overtakes the autumnal colors of Aster, Red Maple, Virginia Creeper, and Flowering Dogwood in my backyard. We are at least 20" over the average snowfall for Minneapolis for the season so far, which seems like plenty for us Mid-Continent dwellers, but I read today that Mammoth Mountain, California has endured 15 feet of snow in the past 4 days !!! Are you kidding me !!? I am having a hard time finding places to put the snow in my driveway, but now I feel embarrassed, what in the world do they do with all that snow?

Front Yard in May

Looking across my front yard above to where the Wild Indigo below is blooming. The previous post is a closeup of this plant:

May Baptisia

Here's a beautiful Baptisia australis, Wild Blue Indigo, blooming the end of May in my front yard. This is a great showy plant with beautiful flower display and an almost equally beautiful rest of season display of foliage. This plant will fill up a 5 foot circle and grow up to 4 feet high before flopping under the weight of its seed pods. It isn't native to Minnesota, but a bit further south in the Tallgrass Prairie.

Spring Means Cottonwoods and Wood Ducks

Spring means alot of things, but in this city block I live in, one of the meanings is Cottonwood seeds, fluffy and over-abundant. They started blowing about 2 days ago, earlier than last year, like many things this Spring in Minneapolis. They spew so abundantly that they produce actual drifts of fluff. And they make it tough to be outside after mid-morning, since they have an almost willful drive to lodge in an eye.

On a more fun note, yesterday I saw a hen Wood Duck cross busy Penn Ave. with possibly 9 ducklings following her into my neighbor's yard, which, like mine is surrounded by a chain link fence. After alerting the neighbors to the wildlife event, we went over and watched the cadre of hatchlings waddle around after their mother for a few minutes. But we had them corralled into the side yard of the house with escape only back into the busy street or through (over) the fence into the backyard. We didn't want to see carnage with them attempting their way back across the busy street, so I pushed Mama forward into the fence. The chicks easily plopped their way through the chain links into the backyard, but the hen looked as though she would strangle herself as she first tried to also go THROUGH the chainlink fence ! I yelled "No!" to her numerous times as I also continued to pressure her in the direction of her chicks. She must have understood me, because she fluttered her wings and lifted herself up over the fence to the happy reunion with the chicks. Then they kind of disappeared as we ignored them for a few minutes and walked around the other side of the house. When we got into the backyard they had disappeared, and we can only hope they made their way to Theodore Wirth Park, about 8 blocks to the west of our yards. It was fun to see waterfowl that wasn't either Canada Geese or Mallard Ducks.

Quick Confessional

Wow ! And I was raised Protestant, we don't do confessionals, do we? I don't know, I am now a protestant to a Protestant in my religious behaviors.
I am embarrassed by my lack of posting these past few (or many) months. I had greater intentions when I started this. I so often get entranced reading other people's blogs, most of whom seem so much more educated and experienced than I about gardening matters, nature, or just life. Or they maybe just have better cameras with which to capture their latest life list entry, beetle, bird or bee. I often think I have little to contribute or add to the big picture.
Whatever my original intentions were for this blog, I am now revising it to become an online nature/garden/life journal. There are a few of you out there who have at least checked in here occasionally, and I appreciate each of you. But I will mostly now pretend to ignore that you're watching, and write as though I'm just thinking to myself, writing out loud. But, obviously knowing someone may be out there, otherwise why not get offline and use a pencil, and just really keep it to myself. Because, ironically, this may become slightly more interesting if I quit writing to some supposed audience, and just write what's going on in my head. So stay tuned if you like, when you please.

Butterflies Need Us

As we humans continue to monopolize the geography for our own shopping needs, we keep plundering the shopping needs of other species. Monarch and other butterly species need native plants to sustain them in both their migratory journeys and their reproductive activities. We can help support them by growing plants in our gardens which provide them with nectar for adult food and leaves for caterpillar munching. Monarch Watch has a website that shows how to be a help to butterflies which happen past your own yard. Plant some native species this year and help keep the butterflies fluttering by !

Monarch Watch

Winter Doldrums

A week of rain and fog, the Vikings lose a chance at the Super Bowl, and another week of subzero wind-chills...welcome to Minnesota in January ! With all the melting the past week, we still have snow covering the ground, due to the heavy snows we had in December. I'll be ordering a few seeds soon, and then some stratifying. Enjoying other people's blog posts, and dreaming of germination temperatures. And watching Lily the Black Bear, as she continues to hibernate with the one cub she gave birth to in the past few days. Check out her live cam here at the North American Bear Center...http://www.bear.org/website/ And take a look at some of the videos on the site also, there is some amazing footage of the researcher interacting with bears at close range !

Introducing Nature Art

My nephew, Jim Rataczak, is a fantastic Nature Artist, outdoor lover, wildlife biologist, family man, and all-around great guy ! It's cool to know that he is able to paint birds and scenes from nature professionally. I still have to hold down a "9 to 5" (sort of) to keep me able to garden the native plants I enjoy. Take a look at his work on his website here.

North American Pollinators in Decline

A study by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, released in 2006, shows populations of pollinators in North America declining for various reasons. A link to the brief of the report is here. Another reason to plant gardens with native plants is to provide native pollinators with more of the food and habitat that only native plants can provide. Here's a shot of a local bee enjoying a little sustenance on a Missouri Evening Primrose bloom in my front yard.

Assisted Living for Plants

Your Grandma or your parents may be in an assisted living residence, now scientists are working to assist plants in finding new homes as the planet continues to heat. Global warming will continue to dislocate whole communities of plants as higher temperatures make their present environment inhospitable to their gene pools which evolved in a cooler time. Scientists at The Chicago Botanic Garden are making a valiant effort collecting seeds from different populations of prairie species with the intent to preserve the species and possibly even assist the movement of communities of species to more suitable environments. Historically, plant species were able to make pilgrimages even across large distances in the event of climate changes, but only because those changes happened at a very slow rate. The current human-induced forcing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is happening at an unprecedented rate, the effects of which many plant species may be unable to outrun. The effort to help plant species migrate in the face of climate change is not without debate; some scientists fear the unintended release of invasive plant species, which take over new habitats, reducing native biodiversity in their wake. Read the whole article here.

Don't Kill the Messenger

From "Grist", an article about how human psychology affects the reception of the message about climate change...and how to best deliver the message, without being put away.
Climate Psychology

And for possibly the best one volume book on the science of climate change, see "The Weather Makers", by Tim Flannery. Also, Flannery discussing his latest book, "Now Or Never", on MN Public Radio on Nov. 3, 2009.

Finally, possibly one of the most effective things a person can do to reduce their carbon footprint; stop eating animals ! See Jonathan Safron Foer's interview with Ellen Degeneres about his new book.

Don't think that Climate Change is really happening? Or that it's not human induced? It's time for you to present your science on why not...what facts are you basing your decision on? Are they tested facts? Have they been peer-reviewed? Are they demonstrable and repeatable? Because this is how real science works. Facts. Data. Repetiton. Peer-Review. If your story doesn't have these, it's probably not science.

Finally, why am I blabbing about climate change on this quaint little blog about native plants? Because it is one of the most important (yes, in my opinion) issues affecting our families in the human history of the planet. I wish that people would try to educate themselves on this topic from a scientific, not political point of view. Find out what the vast majority of scientists think about the issue. Take off the blinders of cultural and political denial. It's happening, and we're doing it, and it will bite us all hard if we don't do something different.

The Carbon Cycle

Carbon flows through the environments of Earth, always has, always will. But how much? The amounts that humans continue to add with all our combustion for energy use are not only intensifying the heat increasing "Greenhouse Effect", but are also causing ocean waters to become more acidic, to the harm of all oceanic creatures, great and small. Watch the new short film, "Acid Test", by the Natural Resources Defense Council, to see what's happening and how we might choose to be kinder to ourselves in the near and longer term future.

Acid Test

And pass it along !

Another Little Plant Sale

Both the sale and the plants are little ! I still have some native plants available that need to find their way out into the greater world. Come and help them venture forth! Stop by my house on Saturday, August 29, between 10:30 am and 1 pm. E-mail me for my address: srczak@hotmail.com
The plants are mostly in 2" pots and are native to MN or the Midwest. They will be $2.00 ea. with some kind of discounts for volume, though there aren't many left.

Here are what remain:

Showy Tick Trefoil about 28
Sweet Joe Pye Weed a couple
Jacob's Ladder 8
Culver's Root 12
New England Aster 8
Ninebark (shrub) 13 green and 5 red (offspring of 'Diablo')
Ground Plum 4
Prairie Blazing Star 8
Purple Prairie Clover a couple
Bottle Gentian 10
Butterfly Weed 6
Prairie Coreopsis 8

sorry, no botanical names this post, it's late and I'm tired ! I'll give 'em to you if you show up.

plus a few other species you could get me to dig out of my yard for $5.00 ea. as these are at least in their second year, and a clump, not a single plant.
also, about 3 surprise species of native shrub I would dig up for $10. ea as these are about 4 or 5 yrs old that were planted bare root about 3 yrs ago.

Hope to see you.....................Thanks !

Lots of Yellow and Some Blue

Agastache foeniculum, Anise hyssop; yummy smell, if you like black licorice !

Liatris aspera, Button Blazing Star; blooming from the top down, just like a Blazing Star

Rudbeckia laciniata, Wild Golden Glow

Rudbeckia fulgida, Orange Coneflower, but not 'Goldsturm'........striking !

Ratibida pinnata, Yellow, or Gray-Headed Coneflower, Hula skirts !

Native Plant Sale 8.22 & 23

Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa

I will have a plant sale of Native Minnesota/Midwestern plants this coming weekend, Saturday & Sunday August 22 & 23 from 10 am to 1 pm in my yard in Minneapolis. E-mail me for my address if you want to take a look.

The plants are growing in 2" or 4" pots. The 2" pots will be $2.00 each and the 4" will be $3.00 each. If you buy a whole flat of plants (18 x 4" or 36 x 2" in a flat) you can take them away for just $50.00.

Here's a list of all the plants available: (note both the common and botanical names for each plant; if you search the web for details about any of them, be sure to use the botanical name as it will get you more precise results)

Here are the plants followed by the number of each (in no particular order):

Showy Tick Trefoil Desmodium canadense-- 32

Sweet Joe Pye Weed Eupatorium purpureum --10

Jacob's Ladder Polemonium reptans-- 20

Culver's Root Veronicastrum virginicum-- 12

New England Aster Aster novae angliae-- 16

Ninebark Physocarpus opulifolius (shrub)-- 24

Ground Plum Astragalus crassicarpus-- 12

Missouri Evening Primrose Oenothera macrocarpa-- 8

Prairie Blazing Star Liatris pychnostachya-- 12

Purple Prairie Clover Petalostemum purpureum

aka Dalea purpurea-- 9

Bottle Gentian Gentiana andrewsii-- 20

Purple Milkweed Asclepias purpurascens-- 20

Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa-- 28

Asclepias ??? Unknown spp milkweed from Hudson, WI-- 24

Blue Wild Indigo Baptisia australis-- 5

Lead Plant Amorpha canescans-- 6

Prairie Coreopsis Coreopsis palmata-- 10

If you want to dig up pictures and info about these and other species, I'll recommend 2 places here that have a wealth of information:

First is Prairie Moon Nursery in Winona, MN;

and the other is the Native Plant Information Network at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX.

I'll be happy to see you this weekend ! Stop by just to take a look at my yard if you like...

Again, e-mail me for my address......Thanks, Scott.

Leadplant and Milkweed

This is a running milkweed, either Asclepias Syriaca, Common Milkweed, or Asclepias speciosa, Showy Milkweed, I've forgotten which.

Leadplant, Amorpha canescens develops a very deep taproot and can become over 4 feet tall with woody stems.

Grasses

On the top is Elymus canadensis, Canada Wild Rye, and the bottom picture is Bottle Brush Grass, Hystrix patula. Both can handle full or part sun and are easy to grow from seed.

More Blooms

This is the Pale Purple Coneflower, Echinacea pallida, whose reflexed ray flowers I can't resist, though it's native to places south of Minnesota. In the foreground are leaves of Astragalus canadensis, Canada Milk Vetch, just preparing to bloom now on July 7th. In the background is the lively Prairie Sage, Artemisia ludoviciana. This one runs heartily, so plant a little and watch it cavort ! I find that any native plant that runs like this is easy enough controlled by pulling the runners, but of course if you mistakenly planted alot of it, well, you might be busy for awhile each season. Many milkweeds run like this also, but the Butterfly Weed is very well behaved, just expanding into a nice clump.

Recent Blooms

on the left is Purple Prairie Clover, Petalostemum purpureum, aka Dalea purpurea. Easy to grow from seed, pollinators love it, and it's really pretty.

Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa and Narrow-Leaved Coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, the only Purple Coneflower that is native to Minnesota. Neither Echinacea Purpurea or Echinacea pallida; Purple Coneflower, or Pale Purple Coneflower are native to the state, just the diminutive Narrow-Leaved, which hardly reaches 18" in height, and whose ray petals tend to to remain much more horizontal to the disc.