Down in the Ditch

Where the mower doesn't go

Our Mennonite neighbor has several small businesses and dealerships in addition to his farming operations. Along the highway beside our two mailboxes, he has several signs advertising these enterprises.

Every Saturday, one of his sons mows both sides of our shared lane, from their house, past our house, down to the highway, around the mailboxes and signs, and along the highway for fifty feet or more in both directions. One of our neighbor's sidelines is lawn mower repair, so he probably thinks that keeping the grass cut short is a good business practice.

But down by the mailbox, on the banks of the ditch, where the lawn mower doesn't go, all the plants are growing wildly. I enjoy seeing them.

And I like the little pool of water that stands in the ditch in the springtime. It's interesting. When I stop to get the mail or go for a walk down our road, I stand at the end of the culvert and peer down into the shady depths. Sometimes I see a frog or a turtle or a crawdad enjoying the water.

But even when I see something interesting, I don't go any closer. I like to look at all that vegetation on the ditch banks, but I don't want to wade through it.  There's too much poison ivy!

Corn-growing Weather

Corn is thriving in the heat.

The corn in this Christian County (KY)  field was planted before the flood in early May. Somewhere in the field, there are probably a few places where the corn plants are sparse, because the seeds (or the seedlings) were washed out by heavy rain or because the young plants stood too long in water and died.

Some of the corn around the county is much younger than the corn in this photo. Farmers had to wait a while for the fields to dry after all that rain. Fortunately, we have a long growing season in Kentucky, and the corn still has plenty of time to mature before frost. The main concerns about late corn are insects and the dry weather we often get in mid-to-late summer.

Corn likes the heat, as long as it has adequate moisture in the soil. We've had a couple of heavy rains in this part of Christian County just this week, so the corn around here should be growing like crazy.

My husband says some fields of corn are tasseling near Pembroke. Those plants won't be growing any taller. They'll be putting all their remaining energy into growing their ears. The amount of time that corn needs to reach the tasseling stage is determined by its variety. Some corn varieties are short-season, some are long-season, and some are between the two extremes.

Ag Web reports that across the nation,

Conditions for both corn and soybeans are in very good shape so far this year and ahead of last year. Corn is listed at 77% good to excellent, compared to 76% last week. (Source)

_______________
Read more about corn on the Purdue University website.
Read some farmer-talk about the state of the nation's crops.

Norman E. Borlaug

A man who fed the hungry

Norman E. Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution and winner of the Nobel Prize for his creation of high-yielding hybrids of grains, has died at the age of 95.

Because of Borlaug's work in the decades after World War II, grain production was dramatically increased in Asia and Latin America, averting famine and literally saving the lives of millions of people. In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, Borlaug said that food is the most basic of all human rights.

Borlaug, a son of Norwegian immigrants, grew up on a farm in Iowa. He knew from his own experience and observation that farmers needed the help of scientists. As a young man in the early years of the Great Depression, he served in the CCC. He saw hunger, and he saw the difference that adequate food made in people's lives. He never forgot.


Read more about Borlaug's life and work:
Norman Borlaug
Norman Borlaug, Plant Scientist Who Fought Famine, Dies at 95 
Norman Borlaug: Agronomist and "grandfather of the Green Revolution"

Small Canebrakes Remain

Cane still grows in Christian County, Kentucky

I read about canebrakes for years before I came to Kentucky. Usually, frontiersmen were clambering through dense canebrakes, or Indians were hiding in canebrakes waiting to attack. The cane was said to clatter as horsemen passed through.

After I had lived in Kentucky for a few years, I realized that I was in the land of canebrakes but I hadn't seen any yet. I asked a few questions. The neighbors laughed at me. "Cane? What do you want cane for? Well, it's everywhere. Just look around."

Eventually, I took a good look at some tall, coarse vegetation growing in a road ditch in our neighborhood and I realized that it had to be cane. Then, when I knew what it looked like, I began to see many small patches of cane in swampy areas and on the moist banks of waterways.

Huge canebrakes in Kentucky history

A few centuries ago, the southeastern United States contained hundreds of thousands of acres of canebrakes.  On river banks, cane grew in stands as large as "several hundred yards wide and several miles long". James O'Luken writes in The Kentucky Encyclopedia that some canebrakes covered "hundreds of acres". An article in Restoration Ecology quotes a description of a Kentucky canebrake in 1790 that was "15 miles [24 km] long and nearly half as wide".

When the winter is not too cold, the cane plant stays green. It was (and is) a nutritious food for the large herbivores and omnivores of Kentucky. The canebrakes also provided food and habitat for many smaller animals, including the now-rare swamp rabbit.

When settlers came to Kentucky, they knew that cane grew in the richest soil of the river bottoms. The fertility of the soil made the hard work of clearing the cane brakes worthwhile. Cane spreads underground through rhizomes. A long-established cane brake would have had an incredibly tangled mass of thick roots, making it very difficult to break the ground with a plow. The battle with sprouts would have been ongoing.

Two native cane subspecies

Arundinaria gigantea, the native cane of Kentucky and the southeastern U.S., is a member of the bamboo family. There are two varieties of native cane -- giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea ssp. gigantea) and arrow cane (Arundinaria gigantea ssp. tecta). Both types are sometimes called "river cane".

Giant cane grows as tall as 30 feet. It is said to prefer the floodplains. The cane around my neighborhood may be arrow cane (also known as switch cane) which is said to grow in upland situations. I don't think I've seen any cane taller than 15 feet in this area, and most of it is shorter than that.

Giant cane and arrow cane are so similar in appearance that it's difficult even for botanists to tell them apart. They can be identified by their blossoms, but canebrakes go as long as fifty years before flowering.

The photo above was taken in early spring after a cold winter. The leaves on the stalks were frozen back during several spells of sub-zero weather. This patch of cane grows near a small creek in a neighbor's field. Some good, close-up photos of native cane can be viewed at The Browyers Den.

Read more on the Internet:
River Cane
Encyclopedia of Alabama: Canebrakes
Canebrakes in old-time Georgia

Corn Silks and Tassels

Tasseling and detasseling

About three weeks ago, I stopped along Old Highway 68/80, east of Hopkinsville, and took this photo of the Little River Valley. In the distance, a field of corn is growing in the rich bottom land along the river. It appears as a yellow patch because all the corn plants were tasseling (blooming). The tassel is the male flower of the corn plant.

The cornfield was also full of female flowers (little corn ears-to-be), though they aren't visible in the photo.  Each one had its silks (ovary extensions) ready to receive and transport the pollen. Each silk was connected to an ovule (kernel-to-be) on the ear that began to grow as soon as it was fertilized.

Pollen grain germination occurs within minutes after a pollen grain lands on a receptive silk. A pollen tube, containing the male genetic material, develops and grows inside the silk, and fertilizes the ovule within 24 hours. Pollen grains can land and germinate anywhere along the length of an exposed receptive silk. Many pollen grains may germinate on a receptive silk, but typically only one will successfully fertilize the ovule.

Source: "Silk Emergence" at the Corny News Network

When hybrid seed corn is grown, two varieties of corn are planted in a field, but only one variety is allowed to tassel. The tassels on the other variety are removed manually (often by teenagers who need a summer job) and/or by machine, or sometimes a corn variety with sterile tassels is planted.

The ears that grow on the detasseled plants will have hybrid seeds (kernels) -- a cross between two varieties. All of the corn kernels from ears on the tasseled plants are simply "chips off the old block", now a little more inbred.

After the corn tassels, the whole energy of the plant is devoted to growing the ear/s of corn and filling the kernels with all the nutrient and genetic material it will need for germination. The plant will not develop any more leaves or get any taller.

Saving Seeds

How to select corn seed to save

A few large agribusiness companies have great influence over the kinds of corn, soybeans, wheat, etc. that we grow in America. This wasn't always true. Farmers used to save a portion of each crop as seed for the next year.

My 1919 agriculture textbook describes how a farmer should select ears of corn from his field for the next year's seed.

Seed corn should be selected in the field directly from the growing stalk. This should be done before the general harvesting and before a frost.

When the husks and lower leaves have turned yellow and the kernels of corn are glazed, the corn is mature enough to be gathered. The ears should be typical of the variety in size, shape, color, and indentation.

The plant from which the ears are selected should be strong and leafy; it should have matured a little earlier than the main crop; and it should bear the ear at a height convenient for husking. that is, three or four feet from the ground... [I]t is essential that such ears be removed on the day it is gathered to a suitable place where it can quickly dry out or cure.

Source: An Introduction to Agriculture (pp. 84-85) by A. A. Upton and G. A. Schmidt, M.S. Copyright 1919 by D. Appleton and Company, New York.

The farmer was urged to do a germination test in February or March of the following spring, with a few kernels from each ear of corn he had saved If the sample seeds didn't sprout or if they produced weak seedlings, none of the seed from that ear should be planted.

In another chapter, the following characteristics of high quality seeds are listed:

1. Well matured and not more than two years old.
2. One hundred per cent pure.
3. Of a high weight per bushel.
4. Bright and have a live color and sweet odor.
5. Free from disease, injury, dirt and weed seeds.
6. Well graded [all imperfect seed removed].
7. A strong and high germination power.

Source: An Introduction to Agriculture (p. 130) by A. A. Upton and G. A. Schmidt, M.S. Copyright 1919 by D. Appleton and Company, New York.

Any gardener or farmer can become a seed saver. For best results, start by planting a non-hybrid seed. Then select the best seed from your crop, allow it to mature, dry it, and store it in a cool, dry place.

Thoughts About My Neighbor's Wheatfield

Bread on the stem

Do they still teach little children that bread is made from flour and that flour is made from the wheat that farmers grow? It's important that they know that farming is an honorable occupation and that farm products are vital to our nation and the world.

Food doesn't magically sprout from the grocery store shelves. If it weren't for the farmers who grow our food, we'd have to grow it ourselves. Do they tell school children that, nowadays?

The wheat in the photo above is in our Mennonite neighbor's field, across the road from our house. The tallest stalks are a full five feet. This field should make a lot of straw in addition to many bushels of grain. Well done, Willis, and thank you.

Old-time Corn Varieties

Another Tall Corn Image c. 1920

A homesteading book lists eight different types of corn that have been developed over the years. How many can you name before you read them? I certainly couldn't have named them all!

The 8 basic corns, in roughly chronological order of development are Indian (hominy and flour) corn, popcorn, pod corn, flint corn, dent corn, sweet (and supersweet) corn, high-lysine corn, and waxy maize. Some of these corns, including Indian corn, popcorn, flint, and dent, are sometimes referred to as "field corn" because they are left in the field to dry on the cob and are stored on the cob. Sweet corn, on the other hand, is picked fresh from the stalk and hurried to the house to be frozen, canned, or dried.

Quoted from The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book by Carla Emery (p.160). Published in 2003 by Sasquatch Books, Seattle.

I think the corn in the picture at right (scanned from my 1920 geography book) would fall somewhere before sweet corn in Carla Emery's list. The little boy appears to be holding some ears of dark-colored corn, and the man is holding some lighter-colored ears. It's very likely that the farmer wasn't even planting a named variety of corn. He probably just saved some seed from his best corn each year.

The Dallas County (TX) Archives on Rootsweb contain an interesting story of tall corn in 1895.

When the TIMES HERALD of Friday reached Mr. Jeff Hill, of Egypt, on White Rock creek, he read about County Commissioner Smith bringing to town, a stalk of corn sixteen feet high, and to himself said: "Pshaw! I can beat that, myself," and so saying, he went to his field and took the first stalk he came to, which measured twenty-one and one-half feet in length...

This morning, Mr. Hill called the attention of his neighbor, Mr. P. A. Howell, to the stalk, and Mr. Howell brought it to town, and it may be seen at the court house.

Mr. Howell states that this corn is of the "Mexican June" variety. It averages two ears to the stalk, and the ears run from eight to eleven inches in length. The ears are large in diameter and have plump, full grains...

Source: Dallas County Archives, Miscellaneous Articles Part 4 (Scroll down to 1895.)

I was surprised to learn that "Mexican June" corn seed is still around. One vendor, Gourmet Seed International, gives the following description of the variety:

(80 to 95 days) Mexican June is a very old and formerly widely used white field corn by settlers in the old west as well as the U.S Calvery [sic] and Mormons. Edible in the very early stages as a fine sweet corn, but not extremely sweet. In the dent stage it is an excellent variety for grinding, feed or masa for green corn tamales. Does quite well in moderately cold climates. In spite of continued demand for this heirloom, it is in danger of disappearing from the US market.

Source: Gourmet Seed International's Corn and Popcorn

The various heirloom seed companies describe many varieties of old time corn, such as "Bloody Butcher," "Country Gentleman," and "Peruvian Purple." I've included a few links below that you'll enjoy if you're interested in this sort of thing. A Mother Earth News article about "Uncommon Corn" suggests ordering heirloom seeds from a company in your region, so the plants will be better adapted to your climate.

Related post:
Tall Corn and Steel-Wheel Tractors

Related links:

Giant Olotillo Maize seeds for sale on eBay
Heirloom corn varieties at Victory Seeds
Rare corn varieties at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Old-time corn varieties at Heirloom Seeds
Corn seed list at Tradewinds Fruit

Yellow Maple Leaves Make Me Happy

How does yellow make you feel?

Our old sugar maple has taken on its autumn color. It's always very, very yellow.

I am mildly fond of yellow, in subdued tints and shades, but I do not like a lot of intense yellow in my clothing or my home. However, I think this tree is beautiful, and when I stand beneath it and bathe in its golden glow for a few minutes, I feel happy.

The yellow color of these leaves brings back some nice memories of the kids raking up huge heaps of leaves and jumping into them from their swing. Our old kitty, Happy, who was young then, loved playing in the leaves too. He liked to be covered up, and then to spring out and "surprise" everyone.

My happy feelings about these yellow leaves made me wonder what the psychological effect of yellow is supposed to be. I won't claim that I conducted exhaustive research, but I did read a few webpages on the topic of color psychology, and here's what I found. Negative effects are noted in italics.

• Yellow in the American culture: Sunny, cheerful, inspiring, high spirit, caution, cowardice (Source)
  

• Connotations of yellow in Western cultures: Happy, friendly, optimistic, cowardly, annoying, brash (Source)
  

• Yellow in the home: Sunny, energetic, creative, intellectually stimulating, friendly, inviting. Deep shades "can enhance feelings of emotional distress." (Source)
  

• Effects of yellow: Feelings of optimism, enlightenment, and happiness, a promising future, energy, creativity (Source)
  

See also:
All About Yellow
The Psychology of Color

This photo also appears in a post on my tree blog.

Technorati tags: yellow, psychology of color, sugar maple, autumn foliage, fall colors

Autumn Flowers

Eupatorium coelestinum, wild ageratum, blue mistflower

If you live in western Kentucky, you'll see these purple/blue wildflowers blooming in the road ditches right now.

They are Eupatorium coelestinum, or blue mistflower, also called wild ageratum. They are one of my favorite wildflowers. As you might guess when you look at the flower, they're a member of the aster family.

They like moist areas. I sometimes see them growing side-by-side with goldenrod which is a very nice color combination. This solitary specimen is growing in a damp area in the ditch just up the hill from our mailbox.

Only slightly related:
I couldn't resist buying the flowered handkerchiefs below. They are just a sample of the patterns in the stack of ladies' hankies at the Mennonite store at Fairview (KY.)

Technorati tags: wild ageratum, blue mistflower, Kentucky wildflower, Eupatorium coelestinum

Marigolds for Keely

My daughter's favorite flowers

My daughter Keely has always loved marigolds. When she was little, I had a big garden every year with lots of marigolds mixed in with the vegetables. I'm sure that's where she developed an affection for them.

Keely used to say that she was going to have marigolds at her wedding. I don't know if she still thinks that or not.

I like the brash scent of marigolds. It's part of their personality -- they're bright and spicy. I wouldn't want to wear their fragrance myself, but for marigolds, it's just right.

I've always liked the yellow marigolds a little better than the orange ones. In fact, the marigolds in the photo are my favorite sort of marigolds. Like Keely, I developed an affection for them when I was a little girl because my mother grew them.

Another reason I like them is that they're easy to start from seed. The seeds are big enough that they're not hard to handle, and they germinate fairly quickly. They're not too fussy about how deep they're planted. In the garden or a flowerbed, they'll often reseed themselves.

These marigolds have struggled through months of drought this summer, and now that it's nearly time for frost, they're finally looking pretty. I'll hate to see them go.

Technorati tags: marigolds, favorite flowers

Milkweed Pods

Seeds bursting out, just as they should

Milkweed seeds ready to fly away

This milkweed plant, growing in the ditch, reminds me of walking home from country school when I was a child.

In the fall when the weather was nice, I was either reading a book as I walked along, or I was watching for interesting stuff in the ditches.

I loved the milkweed plants when their pods burst open and their seeds spilled out into the wind. The fuzz on their seeds was as soft and delicate as a fairy's wings. Later, when the seeds had flown away, the dried pods were very smooth on the inside.

I still like milkweeds. I suppose some people would call them weeds, but I call them wildflowers. Their blossoms have a lovely fragrance. Smell one, and you'll understand why the butterflies love milkweeds. Bees like them, too.

With all those wind-borne seeds, I suspect that milkweeds are sometimes called invasive, but I don't really care. More milkweeds means more bees and butterflies. In fact, the very existence of Monarch butterflies is dependent on milkweeds.

During the summer, female monarchs look for milkweed plants in meadows, along roadsides, and abandoned farmers' fields of the northern United States and southern Canada. Females lay their eggs only on milkweed plants, and each female lays about 400 clear green oval eggs. The monarch egg is no bigger than the head of a pin, and is attached to the underside of a milkweed leaf. Within a few days, the egg hatches and a yellow, black and white striped caterpillar emerges, beginning its life cycle.

Source: Monarch Butterfly Facts

This article also explains that a certain chemical accumulates in the Monarch caterpillars as they eat the milkweed leaves. It produces the bad flavor that later helps to protect Monarch butterflies from being eaten.

I'm happy to see the milkweed pods exploding into seed again. It reassures me that some things are still right in this world.

Technorati tags: Monarch butterfly, butterflies, milkweed, milkweed pods, wind-borne seeds

Greater Tickseed: Yellow Autumn Wildflower

Coreopsis major Walt.

Greater Tickseed

Even though it's been a very dry summer here, the autumn wildflowers have managed to survive. They are a tough bunch. The butterflies who are migrating are probably grateful for them.

The flowers in the photo above are growing in a ditch on a dry hillside along the edge of a wooded area. I supposed they have a fairly moist environment there, in rainy summers. I hope I have them identified correctly. If I'm wrong, please let me know! Based on the characteristics of the flower and the description of where it grows, I think it is greater tickseed (Coreopsis major Walt.,) a member of the aster family.

Coreopsis major Walt.
Coreopsis major

Wild Roses

Prairie rose and pasture rose

Rosa carolina, wild pasture rose of western Kentucky

This pretty little wild rose is named Rosa carolina or pasture rose. Several clumps of Rosa Carolina grow along our lane, which climbs the hill to our house from the highway. Every summer, I enjoy seeing their blossoms.

Pasture rose is a native of the eastern United States. I'm also familiar with wild prairie roses from my Nebraska childhood. The flowers of both roses are very similar, but the berry of the pasture rose is yellowish-orange while the prairie rose has a red or red-orange berry.

The pasture roses here are a larger plant than the prairie roses I remember. Western Kentucky usually gets about three times more rain per year than western Nebraska, and I am sure that affects the size of the wild rosebushes.

I've noticed that ladies sometimes choose "Prairie Rose" as a nickname for internet bulletin boards or a CB handle. There are many other things named for prairie roses, even a town in North Dakota. Pasture rose isn't often honored in that way -- its humble, homely name is rarely adopted.

I took this photo earlier this summer before the drought became severe here. The roses look lush and fresh, compared to the dried-up landscape we have right now.

If you look closely, you'll notice two plants are represented in the photo. The other one is honeysuckle vine, which grows rampantly around here. It's an invasive species, not even a native of this continent. It was brought here as an ornamental from Asia. I love the scent of honeysuckle blossoms, but I hate its habit of growing over anything in its path.

More Wildflowers from Kingman County, KS

Wild flowers of southwest Kansas

My sister-in-law, Kathy, sent me some more wildflower photos from Kingman County, Kansas (southwest of Wichita.) Thanks, Kathy, for sharing these!

It has been an unusually wet year in the part of Kansas where Dwight and Kathy live, and the wildflowers have bloomed in such profusion that's it's hard to imagine.

I hope you'll take time to click on the photos and look at the larger versions. They should load fairly quickly as most are under 150K in size. These little preview images don't really show how the flowers cover the landscape.

Catclaw sensitive briar

Swamp milkweed

Sunflowers

Sunflowers

Leadplant (I think) and sunflowers

Indian blanket flowers and sunflowers

Sunflowers, Indian blanket flower, and western yarrow (I think!)

Sunflowers, yarrow,leadplant, and a mixture of native grasses

Hank chases a deer who has invaded his territory

My sister-in-law Kathy's flower bed

If you enjoyed these photos, you'll enjoy the Kansas wildflower photos I posted a couple of months ago, also from Kathy, my sister-in-law.

Technorati tags: Kansas wild flowers, Kansas wildflowers, Kingman County Kansas

Elders (Elderberries) Are Blooming

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... More About Trees And Plants

Elderberry is blooming along the roads.

Along Christian County's ditches and ponds and little streams, elders are blooming. Perhaps you call them elderberries. Either way, the name refers to the same shrubs.

When we first moved here, I thought that the white-blooming clump of elder near our mailbox might be some kind of wild hydrangea. (I had read an article about wild hydrangeas in Southern Living magazine.)

However, in a few months, the white blooms morphed into drooping heads of small blackish-purple berries dangling from red stems. I realized that they were definitely elderberries.

I still don't know if any wild hydrangeas grow here, but we have lots of elder bushes. Our elder is Sambuccus canadensis, American (common) elder, which is native to much of the U.S.

I like the schedule elderberry bushes keep. They bloom in June and July after the early rush of blooming shrubs has finished. A couple of months later, the birds enjoy the fruit. In fact, when the elderberries are ripe, the birds practically swarm the berry heads.

If I had a wild, wet area, I'd think about planting elders there. Elders are short-lived shrubs, but the root system will send up new shoots as the old ones die out. In a manicured yard, the dead branches would need pruning every year, and that might be a pain. It would be better to plant them where nature can just take its course.

The flowers, leaves and berries of the elderberry were used by American Indians, and are still favored for various folk remedies. At health food stores, you'll find elderberry supplements that are said to fend off influenza.

If you ever decide to pick elderberries, be sure you have the plant identified correctly. Elders do not have thorns. Also, the berries of the common elder are always blackish when ripe and the berries hang down from the heads. There is another type of elderberry that produces red berries, and they are poisonous.

People usually hold a pan under the head and strip the little berries off, rather than plucking them individually.

My Mennonite neighbor, Kathryn, has picked elderberries to make jam some years. Elderberry wine is supposed to be good for what ails you, and I've heard of elderberry tea and elderberry pie. I have never made any of those things.

I just enjoy looking at elderberries blooming and bearing fruit. It's not nearly as much work.

Technorati tags: American elder, common elder, elder berries, elderberries, wild fruit

Big Bluestem Honored

Life In Missouri... More About Trees and Plants...

Today, big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) was named the official Missouri State Grass.

4th grade teacher Christine Schmidgall and four successive classes of fourth graders in Rolla, MO, were instrumental in the naming. They worked with their state representative, lobbied the legislature, and even testified before a subcommittee. No wonder the governor came to their school to sign the bill into law.

“Big Bluestem has been here for 10,000 years,” said Schmidgall. “One of the neat things about it is that it grows nine to 12 feet above the ground, but its roots go 10 to 15 feet below and nourish the soil as they decay. Really, it’s incredible, and truly native to the state.”

Source: "Blunt Signs Big Bluestem Bill," by Kristen Jump,The Rolla Daily News, June 12, 2007

The Associated Press was less ecstatic about Missouri's new state grass. Perhaps they were trying to be more "fair and balanced" than the hometown newspaper of the teacher and kids who successfully lobbied for big bluestem.

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site, big bluestem can be a "weedy and invasive" plant. But the agency also said the grass is good for livestock grazing, erosion control and also can provide a place for nesting by birds and other animals.

Source: "Big bluestem is now state’s official grass", by staff. Associated Press, June 12, 2007

The grassy topic of this post may be unpleasant to readers who are allergic to grass pollen. It's a rough time of the year for hay fever sufferers. I hope the clump of big bluestem at the top of this post doesn't make anyone sneeze or break out in hives.

Technorati tags: big bluestem, Missouri state grass, Missouri, 4th grade, native grass

Prairie Wildflowers in Kingman County, Kansas

All In The Family... Life in Kansas... More About Trees and Plants

My brother Dwight amid wildflowers (with Sammie and Hank)

Gaillardia and other wildflowers

A variety of sunflower?

Catclaw sensitive briar

Blanket flower,spiderwort, etc.

Just today, I was thinking about the wildflowers on my brother's ranch in Kansas. This time of the year, especially if there has been good rain, they bloom gloriously.

Then one of those strange little coincidences happened. In today's mail, I found a package from my sister-in-law Kathy. It held a CD titled, "Kansas Wildflowers 2007."

I am sharing Kathy's beautiful photos since many of us haven't been on the Kansas prairie to enjoy the flowers during the last few weeks.

Dwight and Kathy live southwest of Wichita, Kansas, in Kingman County. Their place is on the extreme edge of a unique area that's called the Red Hills (or also the Gyp Hills, for the gypsum deposits.) The Red Hills and all of Kansas are in the Great Plains, in the shortgrass prairie region.

South central Kansas has had some rain this spring, and the flowers show it. I hope you'll click on some of these photos and look at the large version so you can see how the flowers stretch into the distance.

The red flowers, gaillardia, are often called blanket flower because of their similarity to brightly colored Indian blankets.

Some of the blue flowers are tradescantia, commonly known as spiderwort. They are related to daylilies. I don't know where I got the name "snakeflower" for them, but that's what I called them until I learned the proper name.

The flowers that look like pink daisies are purple coneflowers and those that look like yellow daisies are some kind of sunflower -- or so I would call them. Catclaw, one of the lavender flowers, is related to the mimosa tree.

If I'm wrong on any of this, feel free to straighten me out, and if you know some of the other names, please let me know.

Purple coneflower and more

Gaillardia (blanket flower) and more

More wildflowers whose name I don't know!

Low-growing wildflowers on Kathy's lawn

Technorati tags: Kansas, wildflowers, wild flowers, Kansas wildflowers, shortgrass prairie

Flats of Flowers

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... More About Trees and Plants...

I took this photo a few days ago. K-Mart has either received a fresh shipment of flowers or has been doing a beautiful job of caring for the ones they have in stock.

If you estimate that each 6-pack is worth about $2.00, there's quite a bit of money in this photo. I can't decide exactly how many flats there are, but there are at least 15, and each flat holds at least six 6-packs (or more if they're the itty-bitty 6-packs.) So that's at least $180 in flowers if they sell them all and don't let any die from neglect.

I did buy some petunias and impatiens . They always do well in pots for me. I planted some flats of small marigolds and they're currently living on the front porch until they get big enough to transplant to the garden. I should have started the seeds a little sooner, but they'll grow quickly and bloom until we have a hard freeze next fall.

Volunteer zinnias are coming up in the garden from last year's flowers so I will transplant some of them into a clump or row and let them grow.

Red Clover, A Favorite of Mine

More About Trees and Plants...

I love red clover blossoms. I love their fragrance.

I'd have sworn that red clover was a North American wildflower, but it's a native of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa (according to Wikipedia.) Nonetheless, it is the state flower of Vermont. Obviously, it has been naturalized on this continent for a long time.

Clover blossoms right now are about as nice as they will be all summer in Kentucky. Both the red clover and white clover are blooming profusely as farmers prepare to make the first cutting of hay. It would be a good time to pick some blossoms and make a batch of clover "honey".

I've bought a pound of white clover seed a couple of times and sprinkled it across the part of our little property that we call "the meadow," (an optimistic label.) Rabbits love the clover leaves and blossoms, and groundhogs have also come to feast. I enjoyed seeing them. Now, little by little, the grass has choked out most of the clover. I should sprinkle some more seed.

Technorati tags: red clover, plants for wildlife, white clover, wildflowers, state flowers