OH WOW! THose are so pretty! I love prairie flowers even though I never lived on a prairie...Shades of "Little HOuse" (The Books by Laura Engles Wilder, not the TV shows! I Could put some of those in my thug corner and see how they like the PUget Sound region! I have never been able to get milkweed to sprout, let alone grow. THose are BEAUTIFUL! And I Like the bizarre Rattlesnake master too!

Liza

I've never even seen a picture of Minnesota/Wisconsin before! Looks lovely! (Sorry, can't remember which state you're in, Steve!)

What GREAT "marketing" you have w/ that row of butterfly weed so neat, pretty, and vibrant, RIGHT by that road. Bet it draws in LOTs of comments/customers!

I agree w/ Lizalily, I've had dismal success trying to grow it from seed (have tried the white Cinderella a couple of times, but no luck.) I may have to buy a plant at the nursery.

What are the plants left & right of the butterfly weed? Something blue-ish on the left.

How do you keep the butterfly larvae from devouring your plants? I've heard that asclepias is a prime host for monarch larvae, and a local butterfly expert told my garden club recently that just one to a few larvae can devour one plant in one day!

Thanks for sharing the pics!

Susi

Lizalilly,

Funny you should mention "little house". We have read all the original "little house" books to my daughters and are now reading Laura's daughter Rose's books. We live 20 minutes from Laura's birth place in Pepin, WI. Our last three summer vacations, including last week, have all been centered around them. Three years ago we went to Burr Oak Iowa to see the hotel/museum they managed for a couple years. Last year we went to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. We saw a great outdoor play which featured little scenes from her books and then camped in the prairie. Last week, we went to Mansfield, Missourri to the final resting place of Laura and Almonzo Wilder. We took a tour of their homes and the museum. Next year it is off to DeSmett, South Dakota to see the final resting place of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. My girls really love seeing the places and putting the landmarks with the stories. Laura really captured the prairie frontier life in her books, my girls have a greater appreciation of what they have after seeing how tough it was just to survive back then.

Anyway, the flowers. The row on the left is Lead plant which is just starting ot bloom, it's one of the few prairie shrubs. The row on the right is Baptisia leuchophea(Cream Indigo). The seed for the Cream Indigo is very expensive ($1200.00/lb.) and this is the first year I will actually be able to harvest any, after 6 years of growing they are finally mature enough. I'm hoping for 3 lbs., hopefully the bugs don't eat em up before they are ripe.

Susi,

The Monarchs do love the Butterfly milkweed to death. For several weeks, when the plants are young, my daughters job was to go along and pick all the caterpillers off and put in a bucket(her record is 213 in one day). We then take the bucket and bring them a couple miles away to where there is a pasture full of common milkweed and let them go. We always keep a few and feed them until they turn into a Chrysalis, then hatch them. once the plants are mature enough they can handle being chewed on. My Liatris (I have four types that are native) bloom about the time all the butterflys are hatching out and it's not uncommon to have thousands of Monarchs out in my Liatris field. It's really quite a site. They also love the Rattlesnake Master nectar.

I'll send some pictures to Poochella when the Liatris are blooming.

Good night,

Steve

Steve,

Your set-up sounds SO idyllic! Big wild praries to live on, those big skys, kids who don't turn up their noses at flowers, outdoors, or hearing about their heritage, florists who buy everything you bring in....! I'm SURE those hail & flood & injury stories MUST be lies, to make the rest of us not feel so bad! lOL!

Put me on your list for those rattlesnake seeds. Did you say they smell bad, tho? Good luck w/ your Cream Indigo harvest.

Do the florists buy the asclepias, & the lead plant & cream indigo, or are you growing them for seed production?

Again, lovely, lovely, lovely farm & life you have. Thanks for sharing it all.

Susi.

That's just gorgeous! Major acreage envy happening here.

Steve,
I second all the aformentioned 'wows'..I spent some time this winter past staring at Nebraska/Iowa/Kansas and Missouri and sort of fell in love with your general neck of the woods even with the cold whipping across it..So very different a look for me...As an homage I planted me some wheat this year..You midwesterners can laugh but it is hands down my favorite thing growing this year..I can't stop looking at it!
It seems here in the northeast prairie flowers are quite the rage even if we don't have the ideal climate for some of them. I am also curious about the Cream Indigo..I heard at one of the trade shows this winter about a couple of new types of baptisia being offered, some bi-color if I recall available in the coming year..Baptisia is yet another fast favorite here..I wonder if you also grow thermopsis a.k.a. Carolina Lupine?
Finally..loved hearing your story of the 'Little House' trips with the kids..good on ya,
Randi

Steve - my WOW's too!! And, flat ground envy as well!!
I think it would be fun to try the Rattlesnake master too.
How long does it take to get to that stage? And, how many stems per plant? I wonder if it would grow in my mountain environment??

Wendy

Steve, I've so enjoyed your posts and photographs. You and your famiy could write your own tales of today's prairie living. A weekly journal with photos would be priceless someday to your children and grandchildren. josh (who loves history and especially those rare journals of early American settlers).

Thanks to all for your nice comments. If anybody wants seed e-mail me at goshawk@redwing.net. The rattlesnake master takes 3 years to get a bloom, it doesn't smell bad and if you cut it off at the base it will re-grow another stem in about a month.

I sell the two kinds of Asclepias to the florists, Tuberosa(butterfly-orange)and Incarnata(Swamp-pink). I sold 600 stems of the orange before we left but it was too far into flower to cut when we got back so the rest will be for seed. The Incarnata is just starting to bloom now.

The cream Indigo is just for seed. I use Blue and white for cuts and seed. I've got Baptisia Spherocarpe and Tictoria (large yellow and small yeallow) that are just for seed but once I have a 1/2 acre of each of those they will be used for cuts too(about 4 more years).

I haven't used leadplant but I think it could be used. I just don't have enough to sacrifice the seed for the flowers at this point, Ive got 1/4 acre in production but it is just as slow as the Baptisia's, about 5 years to maturity.

Compared to some, my ground is flat. It's actually gently rolling and hasnice drainage, except where I planted my Zinnias.

Josh,

Read a book called "Where the sky began". It's a great natural history of what the pioneers experienced as they ventured out of the woods of the eastern U.S. and tried to tame the Prairie.

I'll send a few more pics to Pooch tonight.

TIme to go use the neighbors pool, it's 92 degrees, 85% humidity and a 67 dewpoint, too sticky to work, oh darn.

Steve

Oh, gosh, don't you just love the Midwest and the prairies. I am also a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I also love all the history associated with Lewis and Clark. Thanks for the book suggestion. I jotted the title down in my journal for future reading -- this winter when we are up to our necks in snow. Oddly enough, today at market a vendor was selling butterfly weed (orange) with Queen Anne's Lace. It was simple and pretty.

Here are some wonderful new photos from Goshawker Acres:

2 acres of yellow coneflowers

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Asclepias Incarnata-(swamp milkweed) favorite of monarch caterpillers
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Native lupines (ooh, ahh!)
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lead plant and lead plant closeup
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Liatris ligulstylus w/monarchs(meadow blazing star) the ultimate butterfly
magnet
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How very beautiful1 I want to try all those flowers! Just going to have to clear my corner peice, LOL.

Steve, Thanks for the book recommendation. For others who might be interested, link below. josh

Here is a link that might be useful: Where the Sky Began