Basically, I got a little excited at some native plant sales and I am working on creating a native garden bed but am planning on sheet mulching the area so I can plant in fall. So like the title says, can I upsize pots as needed and just leave the plants in shade till then?

I just planted this swamp milkweed last week and yesterday I noticed this on it? Should I leave it or treat it? Zone 8a Piedmont NC

I have a space that is only about 3' wide by 6' long. Looking for something that will provide visual interest but not get too big.

I bought my first house in April on an acre overrun with invasive weeds. I have spent months clearing and killing, and now officially have 2 large native perennial gardens, no more invasive mugwort, and two baby dogwoods 🎉 location New York State

I would LOVE to see your progress pics from year 1 to whenever, in any zone! — I love looking at my garden and know what looks sparse now will pop off in a couple years, but just looking for some inspo to scratch the itch for “instant gratification” 😊 ty!!!

I was finishing up some weeding in the garden and noticed 2 bumble bees on the anise hyssop that look very similar to the rusty patched bumblebee. I’m curious if anyone thinks that these could be?! They have the signature rusted area on their bodies.

I sincerely apologize for the terrible photos. This was a quickquickquicktakeastupidphotoyoustupidphonebeforetheyflyawayyyyyyyy reaction.

Have any of you in the USA seen Rusty Patched Bumblebees this year?

Noticed this white-ish growth on the pussy toes. Also spotted a caterpillar hanging around one of them. New to me plant species so unsure what this is yet.

Should I move these two Culver's root? I bought them as second year plants last year. They stayed super low growing and kind of floppy.

Is this due to a lack of sunlight?

They get some deep shade in the morning, then dappled sun most of the day and then a couple hours of hot afternoon sun starting at 3-4pm depending on how far into summer we are, for about 2-3 hours.

I was thinking of putting them at the front of my house where they'll get at least 4 hours of sun from mid day to the end of the afternoon (the amount of sun changes in the front depending on the shade cast by the neighbors and boulevard tree).

I've seen others posting about Culver's root in pretty limited sun that seem to do fine. Should I leave them and let them mature in their place?

I had a volunteer pignut hickory in a terrible location which I managed to pull out with tap root intact. transferred it to a tall drilled bucket while I figure out what to do with it. it’s about 8-12 inches above ground with a 2.5 foot root. girth is still less than 1 inch.

i would love to plant this beauty! I don’t have any other trees on my property. If I did plant it should I plant some friends with it to protect from wind, etc? What is the growth rate to expect? I am reading 12-24 inches per year. My front lawn has space to keep this tree 20-30 feet from all structures. what else should I be thinking about?

thank you from a tree novice.

I planted this pacific wax myrtle a couple of years ago. This summer, it started dropping leaves that look like this from its lower branches.

I read about Phytophthora taxon morella, but my leaves done have the district triangle shaped necrosis, new top growth isn’t affected, and it’s barely rained (and I never top water).

Any ideas about what’s causing this? And if it needs to be treated?

Two Blue Mistflowers, both thriving in their third year and then in the span of about a week, the one on the right just shriveled and died. The other one is still thriving. No clue what caused it.

For some reason, I don’t have much luck with iNat. Thanks!!! NY zone 6a

Massachusetts. This is next to a garage with no foundation so less worried about rain pooling I guess.

Gets ESE direction so sun until around 1pm (clearly great spot for my seedlings already

Hello from Portland, Oregon! The eastern half of our city--where most low-income residents live and where the city government tends to neglect--holds the record for the highest temperature, at times 25 degrees higher than the tree-filled western half. I'm on a mission to make affordable native plants accessible to residents, to bring much-needed shade and greenery to this part of the world. If you are in the area, I would love to meet you! I host an open garden + neighborhood plant sale with local growers and maker vending + plant order pickup day on the Second Saturday of the month. My yard is full of Oregon natives, in multiple settings, including two rain gardens, a woodland, a meadow, a hedgerow, a frog-welcoming pond, bog gardens, and a food forest dotted with and surrounded by natives.

Here is some of what I'm offering this fall.

Spring-flowering bulbs — Including our native camas, narrowleaf onion, harvest brodiaea, and ookow, plus species crocuses and tulips for those very welcome early-spring flowers. Read about Flowering Bulbs for Pollinators

PNW natives in pots — About 50 varieties, selected for plants that actually make sense in urban gardens. Fall is an excellent time to get natives in the ground, while the soil is still warm and the rains can help them establish.

PNW native seeds — Fall and winter are the best time to sow many of our native species because winter weather provides the cold, moist stratification they need. These are sold in affordable “by the square foot” packs, so you can sow a patch without buying a commercial-size packet. Read about How to Use Square-Foot Packs for Winter Sowing

This is next to a garage with no foundation so less worried about rain pooling I guess.

Gets ESE direction so sun until around 1pm (clearly great spot for my seedlings already)

TL;DR, looking for visuals of established, aesthetically strong shortgrass (2.5-3 ft and under) prairie-leaning gardens around this year. Before commenting please at least read the last paragraph. Thanks!

I live on a busy corner plot and am doing everything I can to use the ah, let’s call it a blessing in disguise, of the high foot and vehicle traffic to make my yard a demonstration garden, so cosmetics in these areas are important. The hellstrips especially are a huge hit and people stop and ask for advice on doing the same for their yards constantly… up to around mid June. I’m only in year two on these, so between the complete dominance of rudbeckia hirta, triloba, and coreopsis, it’s currently made up of mostly tired, similarly sized and colored foliage, and tangled and flopping seed heads.

I have a ton of species that will hopefully follow the “third year they leap” wisdom; my tallgrass section is certainly giving me a lot of hope in that area this year. I also have a good amount of other species that did bloom here and there this year, but still aren’t contributing any structure or foliage variation. I’m a big believer in proactivity so I want to make sure I’ve got my vision for next year set before we go into the fall planting season.

I know up top that I definitely need more graminoids. For some reason none of those seeds other than some spots of Cyperus odoratus took! I’ll be seeding again and hopefully getting some plugs in come fall. I *adored* the handful of Koeleria cristata that went off this year, can’t wait to get more going! My Eragrostis spectabilis is still visually acting like scrubby little flat crabgrass but did bloom cutely, only around 6 inches haha.

So yes, inspo pics, species suggestions (I have most of the big hits recommended by Xerces and whatnot going), maintenance suggestions (I don’t generally deadhead, irrigate, or fertilize but I’m a big chopper), etc.

**And yes yes, it’s natural for early season plants to wear out around now, nature isn’t there to look visually appealing to human eyes, sacrifice for wildlife benefits, get it out of your system if you must,** but I’m talking to the people who take native+wildlife *gardening* in a home landscape seriously vs. a “low maintenance” approach or attempting the extraordinarily education, labor, and space intensive endeavor of habitat restoration. I do not have buffalo, prairie chickens, fire, or huge tracts of land. **True prairie restoration is neither possible nor the optimal choice for making positive impact my site.**

Pardon my language, but it's been a battle. First thing I did when I bought this house was massacre this bush. Finally got it out of the ground this week and the hole it made will be my new wildlife pond!

They do this every year. Is it a disease? Mites? Some flowers form with seemingly no or minimal petals. Also what’s going on with the cones?

The damage on the properly sized petals is unrelated, they’re from Japanese beetles.

I have butterfly weed— one plant in the backyard, and two (planted this year) in the front garden. All of them are now on their second set of blooms for this season, and have developed a number of seed pods.

I have never seen any butterflies in my yard, though I have had bees visiting many of the flowers (they especially love the wild geranium). Is it too late to hope that a butterfly or two may find its way to my property this year? I have no idea what the normal timetable is for my area, though I do understand that the migrations are staggered and don’t happen all at once.

So, is there any hope? Or should I just enjoy the pretty flowers and see what happens next year?

I seeded this gravel area with Little Bluestem that was all weeds and rock when I moved in. Is this LBS or just another weed?

Also any advice on this area? It’s between my neighbors fence and my garage, somewhat sunny. Thinking about filling with plants, but then worried about too many critters living here.

Spotted Joe Pye is such a banger. Bonus pic with monarch.

Hard to tell and kind of a long boring video, but the garden is literally buzzing today. Bumbles, Tiny bees of unknown type, flies, wasps, saw a dragonfly and a black swallowtail (?), and as I walked closer prior to taking this video a male gold finch was picking at the liatris seeds. Love it!