Plants I Didn't Plant

Even though I didn't necessarily plant some of the things growing in our yard or on our farm, it doesn't mean that I don't like them.  There are some plants, though, that I absolutely could live without.  One of the dreaded plants is a weed called Lespedeza, also known as Japanese Clover, and is taking over our lawn.  Once again an imported plant goes bonkers and becomes a nuisance.  We will be spreading pre-emergent herbicide in the spring to take care of any seeds and will be spot-treating with Trimec this fall.  

This Common Lespedeza is taking over
our lawn, becoming most evident in late
summer.

Lespedeza has a woody stem and 3-leafed
clover leafs, growing low to the ground
in a mat.

Another thug that you probably know about is Bush Honeysuckle.  This is a very invasive plant.  In the Spring, we started to rid our creek side property of this aggressor by cutting down with our sawzall, and then immediately painting with undiluted Round-Up.  I'm not too fond of Round-Up for most things, but Bush Honeysuckle is a well deserved recipient.  There is NOTHING good about this plant.  You might think that the berries are oh, so pretty and good for the birds, but in fact, they are not very nutritious, and the birds just eat them and spread the seeds so more of the honeysuckle grows!  But, I guess I will agree that, close-up, the berries are pretty and the flowers do smell nice.....just sayin'.

One of the plants that I do like that I didn't plant is Jewelweed, (Impatiens pallida.)  I didn't know that this is in the Impatiens family, but on closer exam, I see the football shaped pods that shoot the seeds out when squeezed.  Jewelweed has been used as an answer to poison ivy rash, although I've never tried it.  It is a native plant and hummingbirds and bumblebees are frequent visitors to the flowers.  We have a 3-foot 'hedge' of these plants at the back of our property, and we like the way the hedge looks, blocking the view to our compost piles. 

This is the 'hedge' that we allow to grow.
Though there are not a lot of flowers, it
still looks attractive to me.

The small yellow flowers remind me of
a Snapdragon, but you can see the
beginning of the 'football' pod that holds
the seeds, consistent with Impatiens.

On our farm land, there are hops.  I've seen these years ago and would gather them for dried flower arrangements, but at the time I didn't know what they were.  These are American Hops, not to be confused with Japanese Hops, which are invasive and non-native.  The leaves of Japanese hops have 5 - 7 lobes.

The flowers on this female plant are
the hops, which are nice for dried flower
arrangements (and probably for beer!)

 

            Hops (Humulus lupulus)      

I think we could make quite a bit of beer
with all the hops on the farm.

Close-up of the female's flowers.

We've all heard of Goldenrod.  I think Goldenrod has received a bad rap...especially for allergy sufferers.  Goldenrod is a beautiful, yellow plant, painting the roadside and fields with color this time of year. Did you know that Goldenrod blooms at the same time that Ragweed blooms?  Goldenrod is pollinated by insects, but Ragweed is wind-pollinated.  So if you're sneezing this time of year, don't blame it on the Goldenrod.  You're allergic to Ragweed.  

Fields of Goldenrod are beautiful and have
a sunny disposition.

Wouldn't this be pretty in a vase in your
kitchen?  And you can cut it and not
be afraid that you'll be sneezing!

I will be gone for the next week on a mission trip to Belize.  You can follow me there at www.belizemissionteam.blogspot.com.  In the meanwhile I'd like to know, do you have any plants that you didn't plant that you like?  Or don't like?  Let me know.  Share your comments below.

Looks Like.....But It's Not!

There are some plants that are good impostors.  I noticed several while I was on the tractor mowing this week.  The first observation is that Johnson Grass can look an awful lot like corn, especially when it's young.  We've had Johnson Grass coming up in our vegetable garden, allowing it to grow, because it was making itself at home right next to the corn.  Finally, we learned that it was not corn at all, and promptly pulled it out.  Johnson Grass is invasive and is everywhere!  You've probably seen it along side the road, swaying so nicely to fool you into thinking it's a good plant....but it's not.  The farmers hate it....and I'm not too fond of it either.

A big stand of Johnson Grass, in need of
mowing before the seeds from the
grass heads fly all over the place!

The tell-tale sign of Johnson Grass is the
white strip down the middle of the blade.
Doesn't this look like corn?

Another look-alike is something called Nutsedge.  I know you have all seen this but maybe didn't know exactly what it is.  The thing about Nutsedge is that it looks like a grass, but it is not a grass....it's a sedge, and there is a difference....especially if you're trying to kill the stuff.  Broadleaf grass killers, like Weed 'n Feed, won't kill Nutsedge.  You need a specific sedge-icide, if that is even a word.  I bought some Sedge Hammer (cute name, huh?) and will be using it to rid our yard of the few sprouts coming up.  And pulling it up is probably not the best way of getting rid of it because you can't get all of the rhizomes and it will just come back.  For more information, visit University of Illinois Extension - Nutsedge

The bright greenish yellow blades are
Nutsedge.  A sedge's blade is triangular,
as opposed to a grass that is flat or
round.

This is what happens if you don't cut the
Nutsedge in time before it goes to
seed.  All of these seeds will drop down
into your yard and grow, so it's
important to treat the Nutsedge before
it gets to this stage.

I bet you've all dealt with moles at one time or another.  I think instead of moles, I have gophers.  These critters make the tractor mowing a giggly ride!  The reason I think they are not moles is because of the big mounds of dirt in a row that are made every week after I mow over the mounds.  I don't see mole runs (i.e. raised, narrow, tracks) like moles make, and believe me, we have had moles in our lawn in the past.  I have a contact at SIUE in the Biology Department who is going to come over and trap him some gophers...if that's in fact what we have.

These patches of dirt WERE raised mounds
before I mowed over them.  I will post a
picture of a mound the next time I see one.

In February, we visited some friends in Arizona.  I had never seen the arid lands of the west before, so I was quite intrigued by all the vegetation, which is so different from the midwest's.  We drove out of our way to see a special, rare cactus, the Crested Saguaros.  I thought of this venture out west today when I saw the 'mutation' on one of my cockscomb plants.  Since I saved the seeds from last year and the original plant was a hybrid, I knew that I wouldn't necessarily get 'true to type' cockscomb plants.  How surprised I was when I saw the two different types of flowers on the same plant, once resembling the Crested Saguaros!

Celosia from saved seed exhibiting two
different types of flowers...the spikey and
the flat!

The Crested Saguaros cactus in Tuscon, Arizona.

Have you been fooled by a plant in your garden?

Please share!

Plants of Interest in My Garden

I like to try a few not so common plants, and I especially like receiving these plants from friends and family.  It just makes the plants more special, remembering the day I received them and the person that gave them to me.  One of these such plants is my fig 'tree'.  Although it is far from a tree, it will be one day.  It is 2 years old.  I received it from my cousin, Cathy, and she had fig trees because her dad had them.  She told me she would give me one if I promised to take care of it.  Well, it's still alive and since the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, I'm looking forward to next year, when it leaps!

The leaves of the fig tree are rough to the touch
and resemble Oak Leaf Hydrangea.  I have no
figs yet....maybe next year!

Another favorite plant of mine is Persian Shield.  This is an annual.  I've planted it the last 3 years.  I love the silvery-purple of the leaves.  It doesn't bloom, but doesn't need to with foliage like this!

This is just one Persian Shield plant.  It
likes living here in a pot on my
back porch. 

Silvery-purple leaves of Persian Shield

  Silvery-purple leaves of Persian Shield

 Have you ever heard of a Toad Lily?  It's not a true lily but is a nice plant because it is one of the few plants that blooms in the fall.  Mine is just now getting buds on it.  The second picture is one from last year where the flowers are in full bloom.  The flowers look like tiny orchids.  It is such a conversation piece and likes the shade...another nice feature of this unique plant.

     Toad Lily in full bloom 2015.

Toad Lily blossoms beginning to form.

Another 'lily' that is not a lily is the Blackberry Lily.  It has orange flowers in early summer but the coolest thing about it is how the dried pods finally come off the seeds, leaving what looks exactly like a blackberry.  Don't try putting milk and sugar on this....it's not meant to eat!

The seed pods lose their covering,
exposing the 'blackberry.'

This is not a blackberry, but the seeds
of the Blackberry Lily.

The flower of the Blackberry Lily which
blooms in early summer.

Do you have any plants of interest or unusual plants in your garden that you are fond of?
Please share your ideas!

Flower Seed Saving and Collections

Do you have flowers that you love to collect seeds from?  Today I went to my flower garden to check on the progress of the developing seeds.  Last year I saved A LOT of seeds, and this year, I've made some modifications to what I'm going to do.  I found that Zinnias, Celosia and Cleome all come up from seed planted directly in the garden or just from plain ole' volunteers that come up on their own in the spring.

     

     Cleome flower with long, still green, seed
pods.

The seeds in the dried seed pods are very
abundant!

                      

There was one type of Celosia that I really liked last year and saved the seeds, so I'm going to save seeds again and plant those seeds ahead of time in the house during the very early spring.  It was a Celosia spicata, but I just call it "Meg's Celosia" because I first planted it in some containers that my daughter-in-law (Meg) asked me to plant.

See those black balls in there in this Celosia spicata?
Those are the seeds.  They will fall to the ground and
 self-sow, but I still collect them.  They are very shiny!

Impatiens are another flower that I like to collect seeds from.  My grand-kids especially like helping collect these because of the way they POP open.  I usually pinch off the stem with my fingernail and carefully place them in a paper bag.  I allow them to pop open on their own and unless you want little seeds all over your kitchen, you better put them in a paper bag and fold over the top.  The seeds use this popping action to disperse themselves in nature, and it works.  I usually have a few volunteer Impatiens coming up in my garden.

 See the little football shaped pod?  The 
seeds are in there. The seeds need to 
be brown, not white or green, in order to
 be good for germination.

Paper bag with many seed pods.  The seeds
have already popped out of some of them
 and you can see the curled empty pods.
    

Coleus, with its many different colors and leaf shapes, are easy to propagate by saving seeds.  I usually stop pinching off the flowers of the Coleus plants in August in order to allow the flowers to set seeds.  Some of these will self-seed into the garden, but I plant the seeds in our basement under lights in February to have established plants to plant in the spring.

The flower on this Coleus has not set seeds
 yet, but I will keep my eye on it and 
collect them.  Coleus seeds are tiny, 
small, and black.

Coleus scutellarioides (Campfire Coleus)
I didn't plant this one last year so this will
be my first time trying to collect seeds.
      

Have you ever heard of Hyacinth Bean?  I think it's one of my new favorite plants.  It is pleasing year round.  In the summer, it is much liked by the hummingbirds because the purple flowers smell like hyacinths, and we all know how good those smell!  Then in the fall, it puts out these beautiful purple pods.  Inside the pods are large seeds, that, to me, look like little Oreo cookies!  They are very attractive seeds.  I will collect them after the purple pods dry up.

The purple pods of the Hyacinth Bean vine.

Purple flowers of the Hyacinth Bean vine.

  

Although not flowers, I do collect seeds from these 2 peppers.

These Cayenne peppers were saved from a 
local historic home here in Edwardsville.
I usually dry them and then cut them up.
      

Black Pearl ornamental pepper.  The 
peppers start out jet black and then turn bright
red.  I understand that these are
VERY HOT!

Do  you have flowers that you like to save seeds from? Please, share your thoughts and ideas.

Out and About in September

 My name is Debbie Rathert.  I am retired and have 7 grandchildren.  I am new to this blogging business, but I think I would like one place to jot down thoughts, random ideas, pictures and observations.  I enjoy taking pictures of pretty things, and I hope that you enjoy seeing them.  I am a Master Gardener and am currently taking classes at the University of Illinois Extension to become a Master Naturalist.

Ailanthus webworm moths (Atteva aurea) is a beautiful moth both in appearance and in purpose because of their coloration and because of what their caterpillars eat.  Caterpillars of this ermine moth feed exclusively on the non-native, highly invasive Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima).  This picture was taken in the Gardens of SIUE.

The Beauty Berry shrub flowers in clusters on new wood at almost every leaf node in midsummer.  I planted my first Beauty Berry this summer and it is doing quite well, with purple berries along the stem.  I hope the birds like them in the fall.

I believe this to be Boneset.  I took this picture in the prairie planted in the Gardens of SIUE (Southern Illinois University.)  The Indigo Bunting that was flitting around, singing his song, finally perched on top of what looks like a millet stalk, which was probably good eating!

Monarch butterfly caterpillars enjoying some milkweed (Asclepias).  Maybe you've heard about the decline in Monarch butterflies due to the decrease of milkweed as a host plant. I've planted some milkweed (Butterfly weed) in my garden last year.  There are several different types of milkweed and the one pictured here is Common Milkweed.   You can see two caterpillars on this plant, along with some of their droppings.  This was also taken in the Gardens of SIUE.

It seems like there were many Swallowtail butterflies this year.  One can barely see this one as it perches in the midst of these sunflowers and Big Blue Stem grasses.

Leave me your comments and thoughts.  I would love to hear from you!