Everwilde Wildflower Journal for Spring 2007
April 7, 2007 - Spring is here on the calendar, but we have had unseasonably cold weather this week. When it gets this
cold, our water hose for the greenhouse freezes, making it impossible to water the seedlings. By mid-day, the
sun had warmed things up enough to get the water going. It is always nice to get into the greenhouse, where things are morespring-like!
The seeds were sown in the greenhouse about 10 days ago, and we are seeing a lot of green now!
We started about 50 species this year, of which about half are new additions to our species list. A few of the new-comers are
several species of Violets, a few new kinds of Asters, two new Phlox species, and one Cactus species!
Germination has
been progressing well, with new little shoots showing up every time we visit the greenhouse. Today we saw shoots of Spiderwort,
Fowl Mana Grass, and Wild Columbine beginning to emerge!
I also had to deal with some seedlings that were touched
by dampening off today. All of the cloudy weather has made it difficult to keep the germination room from getting too wet.
The sun is shining today though, so it is good to get some air moving through the building!
April 14, 2007 - Well, things were still cold this week, with about 4" of snow on Wednesday and Thursday! The picture
to the right shows the little barn, white with cold. Not much is greening up in the fields yet.
The plants in the
greenhouse are growing a lot better than the plants in the fields. With temps in the greenhouse in the 80's in the daytime,
the little plants are thriving! Even though it has been three weeks since we planted our seeds, we are still seeing a lot ofnew sprouts every day. Some of these native wildflower seeds have a hard time "waking up" in the spring, and some
have very sporadic germination.
We are seeing a lot of Fame Flower coming up, as well as Partidge Pea. Some species
have not shown up yet like Silky Aster and Boneset, but they may come yet. It seems like we always have a few that do not show
up at all, but that is to be expected when you are working with so many new species.
April 21, 2007 - This week showed
us a different kind of white in the fields! The Pasque Flowers began blooming. They are called "Pasque Flowers" because
they bloom around Easter every year (Pasque is French for Easter). They are also called Prairie Crocuses, and they do have at
least one thing in common with domesticated crocuses - they are the first thing to bloom in the spring! The flowers are almost
the first thing visible, with the fuzzy leaves showing more afterwards.
We were very busy in the greenhouse this
week, transplanting seedlings from the germinating trays and into the plug flats. We transplanted Wild Geraniums, Blue Camass,
Virginia Bluebells, Wild Senna, and Wild Four O' Clocks to name a few. In all we transplanted over 17,000 seedlings.
We also did a little transplanting out to the fields this week. We put out about 1,200 Amethyst Shooting Stars that had been
in the greenhouse for about 3 years now. They are very slow gowing, and are still only several inches tall. If all goes
well, they may bloom in the spring of 2008 or 2009.
April 28, 2007 - It finally feels like spring! We had quite
a few nice days this week with temperatures in the 60's and 70's. We have not had rain for a while, and the soil is dry for
this time of year. April is usually quite wet and rainy; hopefully it is not a sign of another drought year!
One
of the projects this week was to dig, divide, and transplant some Butterfly Weed plants. The Butterfly Weed field had been planted
three years ago by rootstock, but it never took very well, and became spotty. So, we dug them up, and divided them, and
put them in a new field that has sandier soil; which they like.
The spring ephemerals (species that bloom in the woods
before the leaves come on the trees) are starting to show themselves, and our woods has an area where Round-Lobed Hepatica come up
every spring. We do not collect seeds from them, but do enjoy getting some pictures every year.
We do some beekeeping here
at Everwilde too! The honeybees arrived from California this week, so we put them in their hives. It seems like we never
get a lot of honey, but the bees aid in pollinating the wildflowers, which in turn produces more seeds. The bees usually
come in Early April, but they were late this year. We were glad they were later because it was so cold a few weeks ago.
If it is too cold soon after the bees are put in their hive, they do not yet have enough "beepower" to keep all the eggs and
larvae warm enough, resulting in "chalkbrood". We are feeding them artificial syrup until there are enough widflowers blooming
to sustain them.
We did not do as much transplanting in the greenhouse this week, because of all the other projects.
We did over 5,000 Wild Columbine plants and over 1,700 Prairie Violets.
Round-Lobed Hepatica
April 27, 2007
May 5, 2007 - Another beautiful week... without much rain! The soil is quite dry for this time of the year.
We did get a few tenths of an inch of rain toward the end of the week, which was good.
We spent some time in the fields
this week. We are planting some new areas, so these needed to be worked up and prepared for planting. We are hoping
to plant out about 4 new acres this year.
There are a few things blooming right now; a few Shooting Stars in the greenhouse,Prairie Smoke, and Jacob's Ladder. The Shooting Stars have a wonderful scent, somewhat akin to a Lilac.
Things in
the greenhouse are going fairly well... we now have about 40,000 seedlings transplanted into plug flats. This week we transplantedCopper Shouldered Oval Sedge, Fame Flower, Purple Poppy Mallow, and Prairie Coreopsis, to name a few.
Toward the end of
the week, we planted out about 6,000 Wild Lupines. These like sand, so we put them in a sandy field, and hope for enough rain
to keep them going. A little rain on Saturday was perfectly timed to get them settled in.
May 12, 2007 - Another beautiful, sunny,
dry week! A consequence of the dryness was seen on Friday, when a heavy haze of smoke covered the hills. The
dry conditions have made conditions perfect for a wildfire in the Arrowhead of Minnesota. The smoke here was pretty heavy at
6 hours drive away!
We worked most of the week in the greenhouse and finished up the transplanting! The total final
count was around 70,000 seedlings. The last species to be transplanted were Harebells, Alumroot, Black-Eyed Susans, and Long-Headed
Coneflower.
Strong winds this week caused a bit of a problem in the Wild Lupine field that we planted last week.
The black plastic that we anchored down could not take the wind, and ended up on the edge of the field next to the woods! We
will have to go out next week, and anchor it down again.
What is blooming in the fields? Well, there are a lot ofDandelions and Yellow Rocket. :) Oh, real wildflowers? Let's see, we have the Prairie Smoke, Jacob's Ladder, and Yellow
Pimpernel in full bloom, and we just are seeing the first buds on the Cream Wild Indigo.
Most of the wildflower
fields were cultivated this week, for the first step in the battle of the weeds, that begins now, and will end in October. Weeds
are part of the curse, and take most of our attention during the summer.
May 19, 2007 - Another dry week! I
am starting to wonder if it is going to be another drought year. If so, it will be the third year in a row without much moisture!
The plants that are established are doing fine, but the new seedlings that are going out are beginning to suffer. Even our "wet"
fields are getting pretty dusty.
Transplanting the seedlings out to the fields took center stage this week. Even
though it is dry, we had to put them out, and hope for rain. The first one to go out was Spiderwort, followed by Partridge Pea,
Hibiscus, Kankakee Mallow, Wild Four O'Clocks, Wild Geraniums, Virginia Bluebells, and Midland Shooting Stars. All of our transplanting
is by hand this year, as we are trying new methods that do not allow us to use a transplanter. It is slow going, but 13,000
seedlings went in the ground this week.
The Cream Wild Indigos are approching full bloom now, and are filling out
nicely. The Prairie Smoke is in the wispy stage now, and really does look like pink smoke. I saw the first Harebell blossom
today! The Jacob's Ladder are winding down now, and beginning to set seed. I noticed the first seed heads on the Plains
Oval Sedge today too. They look kind of thin from the dry weather.
May 26, 2007 - We were VERY grateful to get somegood rains this week! The first few days were in the 80's and windy, resulting in the loss of half to two-thirds of the Partridge
Pea. They had been transplanted in a sandy field, and could not take the last week of hot, dry, windy weather. But, about
mid-week it began to rain, and we got about 2" of rain. It came down pretty hard, but not so hard as to make gullies in the
field. It was a relief for us to finally get some good moisture!
We did some tillage and hoeing early this week,
since it was too dry to transplant. We noticed that quite a few different wildflowers were blooming! We saw Blue-Eyed
Grass, Wild Hyacinth, Golden Alexanders, Dwarf Blue Indigo, and Wild Columbine. Most of the Sedges have seed heads on them too.
The rains will hopefully ensure good seed production.
Later in the week, we resumed transplanting, and put out about 15,000
transplants. Among those transplanted were: Copper Shouldered Oval Sedge, Black-Eyed Susans, Thimbleweed, Rock Pink, and Prairie
Coreopsis. The rain and cooler temperatures made perfect transplanting weather. By Saturday, we were half done with the
transplanting for this year!
Prairie Smoke
May 2, 2007
Wild Lupines
May 26, 2007
June 2, 2007 - More good rains this week helped to settle the new transplants into the fields. The showers
were gentle, and did not damage the plants, as the more severe storms do.
Transplanting was in full swing this week, with
well over 20,000 plants going out to the fields. We transplanted Wild Quinine, Prairie Violet, Anise Hyssop, Mountain Mint,
several Poppy Mallow species, and Royal Catchfly.
We began harvesting Pasque Flower this week! The challenge is
to collect the fluff early in the morning before the winds blow it away. It looks like a good harvest this year!
The Cream Wild Indigos were in their peak bloom.... until Wednesday morning. A plague of Blister Beetles came and consumed the
blossoms in short order. We were not there at the time, and so lost some of the crop.
June 9, 2007 - This week
was quite windy, which made transplanting wth landscape fabric difficult. One day had a tornado warning,
but we just got straight-line winds and a downpour.
We finished up transplanting this week! It is always a relief
to have all of the seedlings in the ground. The last species to be transplanted were Joe Pye Weed, Wild Columbine, Harebells,
Fowl Manna Grass, and Pasque Flowers.
There are just a few other wildflowers blooming right now: Wild Sweet William, Harebells,
and Pearly Everlasting. The Grasses and Sedges are looking very good, with full seedheads, thanks to the recent rains.
June 16, 2007 - The weather this week was quite warm... most days were in the upper 80s to low 90s. I was concerned
about some of the newest transplants, but the ground retained moisture pretty well with the weed barrier and the little plants are
doing well in spite of the heat.
This week was spent in hoeing and weeding in the fields. Some of our older
fields need a lot of work to keep them looking good.
We had a pleasant surprise this week in one field.
We have a field that we have dubbed the Mystery Plant. I was an unknown species that came up in the greenhouse from some seeds
that we had obtained from the National Forest Service. We planted them last year, not knowing what they were, and now they arebeginning to bloom! They have turned out to be a Penstemon, though we are not sure of the exact species yet. Beautiful
Flowers!!
June 23, 2007 - The weather this week gave us quiet, sunny days. We could use some more rain,
but it seems like it always skirts around us. We saw a brilliant double rainbow, but got very little rain in that shower.
More hoeing and weeding in the fields this week. We got through the Tennessee Coneflowers, Path Rush, and quite a few smaller
fields. The Tennessee Coneflowers do not look very good this year. We are uncertain if it is from damage this past winter,
or something else.
We found a pest in the Pearly Everlasting field that we had to deal with. It was either
an Army Worm, or something similar. The caterpillars chewed up the tops of the plants, and destroyed the flowers.
Hopefully, they will re-bloom, now that the worms are gone.
More wildflower species are beginning to bloom now.
The first blossoms are showing up on the Wild Petunias. They look really good this year! The Tube Beardtongue are showing
white flowers, and the Prairie Coreopsis are yellow now. In our wetland field, I saw some Winged Loosestrife beginning to bloom,
and the Cattail Sedge and Common Hop Sedge have seed heads on them. I even saw a few blossoms on the newly planted Spiderworts!
Dwarf Blue Indigos
May 26, 2007
Blister Beetles
May 30, 2007
Blue-Eyed Grass
May 30, 2007
Penstemon "mysterious"
June 21, 2007
June 30, 2007 - It is getting dry again... the wildflowers are hanging in there though. We have noticed that
some of the Grass and Sedge seeds are ripening up sooner than normal this year. In a dry year, they dry up sooner and go dormant
to survive. We actually harvested the Awl-Fruited Sedge and the Spreading Oval Sedge since the seeds were ripe.
We dealt with the weeds most of the rest of the week, and got some of the fields looking pretty good. The Butterfly Weed, Showy
Obedient Plant, and Northern Blue Flag Irises are beginning to bloom now. The Irises are in a wetter spot, but could really
use more rain.
Spiderwort Field
June 28, 2007