Is this aster yellows? This is a volunteer cone flower that popped up and bloomed pretty late in the season. These photos are from today! I love a free plant in a good spot, so I'd hate to pull it and am slightly in denial, but it looks like yellows to me :( Location is SE PA.

Seeking suggestions for natives to replace the boxwoods along the south facing front of my house that receives full sun.

I've never cared for them much and a few were pulled recently to accommodate other work being done, so I'm thinking I may as well remove all of them and replace with something native and also more interesting visually.

Thought I'd prepped a new garden area by clearing the ivy and the bamboo (cut/re-cut, didn't dig it out which is the key fact here), got my chip drop, got out my garden fork to break up the soil, and... clang. And again.

Turns out the Previous Owner poured asphalt over everything. Thirty years ago or more I guess. Then leaves + time + ivy + bamboo. There must be 500 sq ft of this stuff all under a couple inches of nice leaf compost + tangled ivy and bamboo roots. I cleared more ivy and hey, it's up to the tree trunks too.

Found my mattock and pry bar. Only plus is I'll have a much stronger upper body and core when this is all done.

And oh, does anyone know how to get rid of old asphalt?

If you can take a couple minutes to save a forest, a thousand years in the making, your heart will thank you.

Currently, the yard is covered with dutch clover and yellow nutsedge, with southern tall fescue interspersed.

The clover dies in summer, but expands in spring and fall. The grass also dies back in summer. The nutsedge seems the most resilient, but I hate it because it grows so damn quickly and doesn't grow in thickly/is patchy.

We are considering multching and doing creeping phlox. However, that would make the yard unusable for foot traffic or playing. Also, I don't know if I want to weed it constantly. Mowing is easier than weeding all of that.

I’m in New England, zone 5A/5B and I have some native plants in 6” pots that I never got around planting. This is my first year with them so I’m not sure how I should overwinter them. Or if I’m screwed. I have things like yarrow, golden rod, milkweed, and various asters. I also have a tray of about 50 yarrow plugs that are probably 2” deep (pictured)

Hi all.

Planted many many trees and used an arborist to help but I recently asked about root flare and it looks like they didnt expose them enough.

I didnt wanna dig trees out myself fully and replant them so I just dig around them a bit to try and expose the root flare as best I could.

My concern is with the first picture. What is shown is not the root flare like the others it seems. I kept going lower and lower on it and it just made the tree super loose. I am wondering if that piece protruding is the root flare as I went down 2 more inches on it and it was still just perfectly vertical but tipping over.

Located in Toronto Ontario. Zone 6b. Thanks

Three aster species and four goldenrods in the yard and they are all finishing up, meanwhile the wild cucumber (echinocystis lobata) has had the exact same inflorescences for a little under two months now!

Massachusetts 6b US

Anyone know what this is on the roots of this Goldenrod and is it safe to plant?

Colorado

3b northern Minnesota. Both smell well, both had a plethora of bumbles on them.

I am wanting to remove this English ivy that was planted in these planters on our front porch. As the temperature has changed, and our neighbors chickens have been in it, the ivy has started to die. I’m hoping to pull it all up before spring and then reassess.

How should I go about it? Do I need to just pull it up, or do I need to also burn it? We have a few stray cats that hang around so I don’t feel comfortable pouring any harsh chemicals that they could ingest!

I thought it had to be one of those everblooming, indestructible purple cranesbills finally recovering from their transplanting ordeal, but then I got close enough for a good look and surprise, surprise, surprise!

For example, if it says 3-10ft, what the heck am I supposed to do with that silly business? "5-10 feet." Brother, is it a shrub or a SHRUB, I need to know.

I’m located in Minnesota. I’m currently not at home and my dad sent me a photo of this flower in my pollinator garden that started a couple months ago that I left and it currently looks like this, and I can’t seem to identify it using apps. Wondering if I should pull or let it grow!

Hi! Only a couple years into gardening, but it’s quickly become my favorite way to relax. That being said, I have a looooot to learn still!

I have a garden bed here with a handful of muhly grass (white cloud) and a joe pye weed.

What do folks recommend to plant around these to cover the soil? Tired of mulching in general, and these beds are slightly sloped, so without that edging, the mulch just runs off.

Zone 7b/Maryland, N facing, medium to moist soil, and gets solid sun in the summer, but our house blocks a lot of the sun in the winter.

This bed will likely get much bigger in the future, but we’re still new in the house and have to budget projects. Would just like to help the critters as much at possible right now!

What's your favorite underrated native plant? Why is it your favorite and where is it native to?

I've been building a native garden (MA) for my parents over the past couple of years. I feel like the space needs more grasses/rushes/sedges, ferns, and I could always squeeze in another bush but I've been heavily biased toward perennials. I'm trying to maximize wildlife value so I would love to hear about the plant's ecological role!

I would like to try growing some native seeds in pots over the winter. We have so many squirrels, chipmunks, and deer around here it is nearly impossible to keep them out of things. I’d rather not spend money on covers if I can help it.

Does this seem like an area that would be successful? It is south-facing but shaded by the neighbor’s house. Rain and snow comes in through the side but I’d probably need to water them a bit if there’s a long dry spell.

Let me know if anyone has had success with a set up like this, and if there are any modifications you’d suggest.

Some of the seeds I’d like to grow (these were from plants in my area, central Ohio 6b):
Dogbane
Common milkweed
Ironweed
Monarda, bergamot
Sea oats
Goldenrod (zigzag, tall, blue-stem)
Rudbeckia
Joe Pye weed
Various asters

Harford Co., Maryland

Years ago my pollinator garden looked nice, but now it has been infiltrated by weeds. I love goldenrod, but it is all over the place instead of in swaths. Queen Anne’s lace and pokeweed have also taken over. Can anyone provide some advice on what I can do?

I do have some lovely plants there, like mountain mint, Amsonia, nepeta, echinacea, as well as a witch hazel tree and spicebush. All are being choked by other plants.

Hello all! Sorry it took so long to post an update!
For those who haven’t seen my previous posts, I’m located in the Sandhills region of South Carolina, Zone 8a. I moved onto my property permanently last Christmas and have been doing a ton of work throughout my first summer here.
Now that we’re heading into fall, I’ve started planting native wildflowers along my fence line as the first pioneers!
Thanks to all the great advice from this sub, I decided to go with Golden Stardust (the one in front) and Black-eyed Susan behind it. I’ve planted both ends of the fence line with these two.
I’ve also got a butterfly weed plant in the center of the fence line that the nursery gave me for free (not pictured), along with another native wildflower near the driveway gate that produces purple flowers. I can’t remember the name of that one off the top of my head, but I’ll add it in the comments when I get home from work and can check the tag.
I’ve also got more butterfly weed seeds and Sandhill lupine seeds on the way!
If anyone has more native wildflower suggestions, I’m all ears!
I’m also looking for suggestions for beautiful native ornamental trees to plant along the other side of the fence line. Ideally something drought-tolerant that produces a ridiculous amount of flowers and doesn’t spread into a massive thicket. Absolutely no crape myrtles though. 😂
I’ve been looking at redbuds, but I’d love some other suggestions. ChatGPT kept giving me make believe trees.
Native fruit tree suggestions are highly encouraged as well!
Thanks again to everyone who’s helped me out so far!

Aromatic Aster “Raydons Favorite”

Hey everyone! I’ve got some tree seeds but I’m unsure how to properly store them until it’s a more appropriate time to stick them in the fridge. (120 days from now it’s only like mid February)

I’ve got Black Walnut, Bitternut and Shagbark Hickory, as well as Cucumber Magnolia.

Just don’t want them to dry out before I start to cold stratify them. Thank you for any advice!

2 one-gallon Turk’s cap
3 small pink Turk’s cap
3 one-gallon lyreleaf sage
6 heartleaf skullcap
3 Texas sedge
7 wood violet
3 inland sea oats
8 pigeonberry
3 southern shield fern
3 cedar sage
2 American beautyberry (purple)

Does anyone else have a copy of “Native American Ethnobotany” by Daniel E. Moerman? It’s an incredible book with a wealth of information. I started my Native Plant journey about five years ago. Since then, I’ve been growing and caring for many of the same plants that Native Americans used, right here in my area. I love pressing plant material inside the book as natural bookmarks and little artifacts of the plants I grow.

This is the fifth year of our backyard meadow, and finally, we are seeing native flowers! I simply stopped mowing sometime in ‘21, and enjoyed the tall grasses the first few years. Now the goldenrods and Frost Asters dominate. We have quite a few invasive species that I will selectively kill. Each spring I mow it once.

We enjoy the deer (including an albino doe), the swallows in late summer evenings, the fireflies, pollinators, birds hunting for seeds in the winter, and the cool air in the evenings rolling in from the forest.

This sedge (?) popped up in my lawn area. I’m looking to ID whether it may be native and earn a permanent spot in my native plant area