Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Wildflower Wednesday, January, 2017

I have been posting less and less, and spending so much time on FaceBook, that I rarely read blogs anymore.  I do not want to entirely give it up, though, so will try to at least keep up with Gail, from Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesdays and the others who post for it.  I have links to the plants I posted today, that give more information about them.

I didn't remember to get a post ready until last night, when it was too dark to take photos.  It has been snowing today, so I took some photos out the front door.  We have seen birds when we go out, but they fly away so fast, I am not always sure what they are.  The one here is either a wren or a sparrow, I believe.  I like how the Rudbeckia maxima stems stay upright.  I have seen birds eat their seeds before.   We are out of their native range, but this clump has done well here.


Here, we see seed pods of wild senna.  I recently found out there is one native to our area, but this is not it.  Still, it is quite the draw for bees and butterflies here.  The smaller seedhead clusters are joe pye weed.


Most of the cup plant stems bent over the front walk that comes up to our house, so I had to break them off and set them inside the planting area more.  I wonder if there will be more seedlings than usual.  I see birds on them in the winter, too.


 I am pleased to have this Illinois bundleflower right next to our front porch.  Birds also eat these seeds.


I was able to dig out some of the joe pye plant from across the yard to plant on the west side, near the sidewalk, and it is doing fine.  I am not sure if it is a native one or a cultivar.


Grayhead coneflowers also self sow around.  I went to a native plant talk where it was said they are not good for a home garden.  The gal was surprised when I piped up saying they do fine in our yard.  They seem to stay pulled or dug out when they come up where I don't want them.


Here are some wider views of our front yard habitat.





Please forgive me, but I am going to get political.  I have never been one to pay that much attention to what my politicians do, except for some environmental issues that have come up.  Now that we have a new president, every day I am hearing things he has said and done that jar me to the core.  I am going through stages of grief over this.  When he first announced, I think he thought it was a big joke.  When different things came out about him, such as his not paying for work or goods what he had agreed to, I figured people would turn from him.  Then, when the video of him talking about liking to grope and do other things to women came out, I was kind of glad, because I figured that was it for him.  I will never see what others saw in him that would allow them to vote for him.  He sure is making a mess of things right now!  I am in the anger phase, in case you cannot tell, and even though I have friends who voted for him, I am mad at them for it.  I am a Christian, and need to forgive, but I am beyond sad for our future generations.  Please read up on pipelines, and when chances come up to fight them, I hope you do.

Happy gardening, or getting ready to!  Plant more native plants, and like Gail says, do not use pesticides!

11 comments:

  1. Sue, I share your dismay over the newscasts. Participating in the Women's March-Los Angeles did a lot to restore my faith in humanity but adolescent behavior demonstrated by the man we placed in the White House and his surrogates is a daily sucker punch to the gut. If that behavior doesn't change, I fear that goodwill marches will be escalated into full-scale protests dwarfing those of the Vietnam War Era. I hope those in power come to their senses soon - I think the people who slept through the election or made a devil's choice on Election Day are waking up to the impact.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Although I live far from America, I too am terrified by your new president. Like you every time some new fact came about him during the election I felt pleased that at least people would begin to see him for what he is. The rest of the world needs you to protest in whatever ways you can. He can do so much damage in four years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am still in shock over his election--considering he LOST by the general population vote. How on earth is he in there????????????????????????????????
    But enough about that. Hopefully, there are some safeguards out there that prevent him from completely destroying the planet.

    I just love all your seedheads and can imagine how much the birds must love them too. I used to cut down the stalks in fall, but one year was gone and that year , I discovered just how many birds depend on those seeds....so now I never tidy up in the fall. And the bonus, as you already know, is lots of seedlings in the spring. It's all good.

    Have a happy week

    ReplyDelete
  4. The pipeline - I signed petitions, and just before the Trumpet, it was blocked, laid to rest.

    Not. The American slice of my filter bubble leaves me wondering who and where are all the people who DID vote him in?!


    Your garden is in stark black and white contrast to mine.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the way the snow catches the seed heads in winter. Illinois bundle flower is a new one for me. Great pods, but your link doesn't seem to show them in flower. I'll have to do my research. Happy wildflower day!

    ReplyDelete
  6. P.S. We're in shock on the north side of the border, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow - that's a lot of snow! The seed heads look wonderful in their blanket of snow. I completely agree with you about Trump. I also have family members and friends who voted for him and I just can't understand why they would do that. I fear for our country, for future generations and for the planet :-(

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's funny how us gardeners are able to look at a dead flower stem, with snow on it, and call that pretty. Yet it's the truth, gardens do look so pretty that way. Yours especially!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love your garden even though its covered with snow.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful pictures of your winter garden! Thank you for sharing.
    I, too, am perplexed as to how this man became president. I, too, love Jesus and am constantly praying for God to help me be gracious to my Christian friends who voted for him. With God's help I have made it through the anger stage and I can see that many of them have been blinded by the enemy to ignore all the signs of pure hatred in this man. I know that God is sovereign and allows things to happen to fulfill His purpose. Judas' betrayal of our Lord was part of God's perfect plan to redeem us. We must trust God and do what John Lewis said: "When we see something that is wrong or unfair, we have a moral obligation to say something about it." Cheer up my sister!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you for the nice comments and words of encouragement. I need to see about visiting those of you who have blogs.

    ReplyDelete

I welcome comments and questions from anyone, including those who do it anonymously. Some people find my posts by doing searches, and I like hearing from them. I guess spammers won't even read this message, but I will delete spam as soon as I see it.