The first of our Kansas native Indigo to bloom is Baptisia leucophaea with golden-yellow to cream colored flowers in May and June on 15” to 18” both upright and spreading stems drooping to the ground with loads of blooms and deep blue-green foliage. Called Early Baptisia, Early Indigo or Yellow Baptisia this tough, hardy herbaceous perennial prefers sun and regular to well drained soil.
Baptisia alba is called Wild White Indigo and is the tallest of the native Kansas Baptisia with wonderful white flowers in 18” long clusters in summer after the Blue Baptisia and the Yellow Baptisia finish blooming. We have clusters of this White Baptisia growing on our Kansas farm that are easily 4’ tall with clean blue-green foliage and thick smooth stems.
Baptisia is a wonderful group of native Kansas plants that deserve a place in your yard or garden. Clump forming, non invasive, with all species preferring full sun and regular to well drained soil.
AESCULUS PAVIA April 21, 2008
red bottlebrush buckeye
red bottlebrush buckeye
yellow poppy mallow
Twenty-four or twenty-five days ago a pair of Killdeers wallowed out a slight depression in one of our flower beds and laid four eggs in the mulch that was covering the flower bed. I decided to stay away from that portion of the large flower bed which I had built for species Peonies. I looked each day to see if the Killdeers had hatched. They hatched on April 30th.
Killdeers are one of the precocial birds and that word means something like “ripened be forehand”. Ducks and Chickens are also precocial as they are able to walk and see the moment they are born. Bluebirds, Robins and Sparrows are called altrical as they are helpless and for the most part blind and without feathers for several days after they hatch.
The baby Killdeers are a tiny miniature of their parents. Fluffy feathers, can walk and run within a few minutes of hatching, have perfect camouflage, need their parents to provide security for them as they scurry around on their tiny stilt like legs and are unable to fly for a few days. The word cute is the best description of a baby Killdeer.
How are they to face the odds of Man’s bedevilment and God’s. They, so tiny and afraid in a world they did not make. Just watch them. Mother Nature has provided them with what they need to survive. It is a happy sadness to see them go. Within two or three hours they had followed their parents into the edge of our hayfield. I can still hear them as the parents let out a shrill Keee and Killdeer sound.
One choice for low growing native perennials in the front border of flower beds and flower gardens is Blue Butterfly Violets. Also called Viola papilionacea this easy to grow Kansas native wildflower has dark blue flowers in spring and then scattered blooming through the summer. Very attractive dark green leaves on a bushy or clumping perennial plant growing to 6” tall. Violets will reseed slowly and will gently spread over the years. Plant them in areas where you need a tough little plant. I have them growing in our lawn grasses and I love them in the lawn. If you are one of those perfectionist that sprays weed killer very Saturday morning on your entire lawn and do not want anything except a perfect putting green for grass, you probably do not bother with wildflowers anyway. Take time to smell the wildflowers. Golf courses are the biggest waste of space and waste of water on the planet. Dig up your golf course and plant wildflowers.
Another perfect Kansas native violet is Viola missouriensis or Missouri Violet which is native in Kansas, Missouri and several other middle America states. Missouri Violet has lighter blue flowers than the Blue Butterfly Violet and will grow slightly smaller, usually reaching 4” or 5” in height with many blooms in spring and scattered blooms through the summer. Beautiful medium green foliage in clumps. Excellent for sun or light shade in regular garden soil to woodland soil.
If a Birdsfoot Violet is in your future you have two choices. Two Kansas native Birdsfoot Violets are Viola pedata and Viola pedatifida. Both are correctly called Birdsfoot Violets. They are very similar in appearance with deeply lobed “birdfoot” type leaves of a medium green color. A thinner growing violet than Blue Butterfly or Missouri Violet with leaf stems growing to about 4” tall and beautiful two tone flowers with the upper flower petals a darker violet color and the lower petals a lighter coloring. On occasion solid colors will appear in some of the Birdsfoot Violets and some may be a pink coloring. These are delightful little natives and if you have space you will love to work with these little guys.
"The caterpillars of Regals, as is true of most fritillaries, eat only violets. In particular, Regals prefer the Birdsfoot Violet [Viola pedata] and Prairie Violet [Viola pedatifida]. The eggs are laid in late summer. The newly hatched caterpillars overwinter and begin eating the following spring. They are black and yellow with short branching spiny hairs. The adults emerge in early summer and may be seen through September. Only one generation appears in a year."
We have the birds foot violets all over this part of Kansas. For more info on these butterflies that eat only violets go to Great Plains Nature Center and see what they offer.
In late April of 2008 about 20 of us took a tour of the back woods at the Overland Park Arboretum in Johnson County, Kansas. We saw (among others) beautiful, breathtaking flowers of tens of thousands of a native woodland perennial that goes by the common names of Fawn Lily, Dogtooth Violet or Trout Lily. Known by the botanical name as Erythronium albidum, which is pronounced a couple of ways, e-rith-RON-ee-um and eh-rye-THRON-ee-um. Either way is probably correct as long as we know what we are talking about and the pronunciation does not sound vulgar.
The large colony of Fawn Lily at the Overland Park Arboretum has no doubt been there for a few thousand years. To see this large group of plants with blooms to match, visit in early spring from mid April to the first week in May. They will go dormant by mid June. Some of this same area is populated with thousands of a tiny native plant called Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) and they also bloom the same time as the Fawn Lily. The Spring Beauty have small 1/2” pink flowers and stand only 4” tall. Both of these native woodland wonders are easily destroyed by changing conditions such as drainage, lack of drainage, bull dozer blight, cultivating soil and in general just messing around with them. When you get a colony established in your woodlands leave them alone and let mother nature handle it. Digging the bulbs is nearly impossible so do not dig them up from the wild. We propagate these Fawn Lily from seed gathered in late spring. The small seed heads are easy to see as they are on top of a thin upright stem.
One of our most beautiful native wildflowers for bright sunny areas is the silvery-grey leaf Artemisia ludoviciana. This native plant is used for ornamental purposes because of the silvery-grey foliage and because it grows in regular to dry conditions. Growing to 18” tall with greenish-white flowers in late spring and summer on the top of the stems. Excellent for naturalizing areas with other native plants such as Pale Cone Flowers, Blazing Star, Yellow Cone Flowers, Perennial Sunflowers, and others that grow to 18” to 4’ in height in full sun.
This native Prairie Sage is the food plant for one of our most beautiful butterflies, the Painted Lady. Painted Lady lays it egg on a host plant that will feed the tiny caterpillar when it hatches. The host plant in this area is frequently the Prairie Sage.
If you see the top of Prairie Sage rolled up, carefully open up the top growth of the Prairie Sage and you will see the tiny caterpillar inside the rolled up home that protects it from the outside world. Leave it alone and soon you will have a Painted Lady Butterfly that has been through a process that only a butterfly could love. It goes from egg to larva to pupa to adult in about one month.
Bluestar is one of those wonderful native Kansas plants that you rarely see. Native to a few counties in Eastern Kansas this clump forming beauty should be used more. Bluestar prefers regular to slightly moist soil and full sun or at least 6 hours of good strong sunlight each day. There are several varieties and species of this perennial plant and most are native to the United States. Known by the botanical name of Amsonia this native is blooming on our farm in Miami County, Kansas on May 10, 2008 and will continue to bloom for several more weeks and when it finishes with the first flush of flowers we will take clippers and snip the seed heads off and it will bloom again.
The photo shows Amsonia montana which is a shorter growing version and will grow to about 18” tall and be very compact. Some common names for the shorter varieties are Dwarf Bluestar, Blue Ice and Short Stack. Other varieties and species will grow to 3’ or 4’ tall. Autumn colors are a brilliant golden yellow and well worth planting if only for the autumn colors.
We have one species on our farm that is called Hubricht’s Bluestar and it has long narrow leaves and the most brilliant of autumn colors. I will send a photo of Hubricht’s this autumn.
May 16, 2008
A wonderful Kansas Native Perennial which looks like a small 10” tall clump of grass and has light blue flowers in May, June and into July. The flowers open with sunshine in the early morning and close with darkness in the night. The eye is actually yellow but the blue flower is so noticeable that the common name Blue-eyed Grass describes it best. A clump of Blue-eyed Grass that is four or five years old will have about 50 blades of grass like foliage, 10” tall and clump forming. The tiny light blue flowers are about 1/2” wide and stand on top of 10” wiry stems. This same species of native grass like plant will frequently have white flowers with yellow eyes on some clumps. This is referred to as White-eyed Grass and both colors go by the botanical name of Sisyrinchium campestre. Both prefer full sun, to light dappled shade and regular garden soil to well drained dry soil. A member of the Iris family, it looks much more like a small clump of grass.
