Butterfly-weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Photo by J. Harrington
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The vendors at Chisago City Farmers Market didn't have any butterfly-weed plants, nor did Alternative Landscapes. Prairie Restoration in Scandia had a few flats of seedlings that are maybe a couple of weeks old. Now that a double handful or so have been planted, we can consider the forecast for rain next week a promise rather than a threat. I'm really looking forward to seeing splashes of bright orange later this year or next.
Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens)
Photo by J. Harrington
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While transplanting the last few butterfly-weed seedlings, I noticed that the native hoary puccoon is starting to show streaks of yellow. There are also some other interesting looking plants on the sidehill where we installed the "monarch garden" but I'll have to wait to see what, if any, flowers emerge before I try to identify them. I struggle to name most wildflowers while they are flowering, let alone when I'm looking at only stalks and leaves. Beardtongue, yes, because I've seen it in all seasons for several years now. Dandelions too, because I've see them just about all my life. There are a few on the list, and each year I get to add one or two, just like most years we find one or two more "hot spots" for seeing Spring ephemerals. Learning about and planting wildflowers helps temper my long-standing goal orientation with unaccustomed patience. I can't learn it all at once from books and I can't make plants flower where and when I want them too. I can read more of Kay Ryan's poetry.
Patience
Patience is wider than one once envisioned, with ribbons of rivers and distant ranges and tasks undertaken and finished with modest relish by natives in their native dress. Who would have guessed it possible that waiting is sustainable— a place with its own harvests. Or that in time’s fullness the diamonds of patience couldn’t be distinguished from the genuine in brilliance or hardness.
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