hahaha. I've done it. and i hate when i take too long to do it and then i cant find it because some deer or somethign munched it- or it went to seed and i cant find it anymore. haha

You got it - I could wait no longer!!! lol.

I let something pretty and pink get destroyed by the mowers last spring. Our ditches are wide and flat for mowing and often have something interesting in them.

Nell

I don't think we are allowed by law to do that in Nebraska, but I think I'll check on that, because you have me wanting to go ditch exploring. I do remember when I was young and having a yard to garden, I dug up some yarrow from somewhere. I'm pretty sure that was the yarrow that I ended up fighting with to keep it in check.

Sue

If it was a white yarrow, Yeah, I know it would have been agressive. I cannot imagine a law the would forbid this!!??

In Missouri it is against the law to dig up any wild flower endangered or not from any public land, including highway right of way....I did dig up some narcissi once from a ditch. I justified it by deciding it was not a wild flower.

I see some interesting things growing this year...and plan to gather some seeds...I don't think that is illegal.

Yours are very pretty, I especially like the first and last ones. Is the pink what we call echinacea?

Sometimes found treasures are the best! I live near the Atlanta airport and there is a huge area, right off the end of one of the runways, that houses were bought by the city and torn down because of the noise problems. I drive around this area from time to time and dig up plants. I've dug up alliums, tons of daffodils, and iris.

The local police have stopped and talked to me and have no problem with my digging but I don't go alone since it's kind of spooky back in this no man's land. Lots of kudzu and "dueling banjos" kind of atmosphere :-)

I don't think the local authorities would care about digging in ditches here either. Looks like you got some gems.

bloominganne

P.S. The airport noise doesn't bother me - I worked in the aviation industry and they are my bread and butter.

Theh irrigation ditches around here get dredged every so often. They are pretty deep. I've been told by various local people that it is okay to go and take soil which has been dredged up and dumped outside of the ditches. They say it is excellent soil. If I had a truck, I might do that. Having only a car, that would be a heck of a lot of work to bag or box soil and transport. I've also been told that wild asparagus grows along ditches, which some folks go out and harvest in season.

Glad to see you back, Friend. I've missed you.

Lorna

I'm convinced there is a dogwood or a dogwood-type shrub (escaped red twig?)growing in the ditch right across from my house. This is the first year I got to see it grow more than two feet high before the mowers got it. They've mowed it off twice since! It still looks healthy. But, I'm wondering just how deep the roots go and if it would be difficult to dig out of there. The leaves sure look like a dogwood, too bad it never got a chance to bloom and set fruit so I could tell.

Schoolhouse - if it is red dogwood, even a twig with some roots on it would grow, in my experience. Now would be good time to do it.

These plants that I dug up are escapees from down the road. There is a garden there with lots of echinaecea and gloriousa daisies. They aren't wildflowers. Just to let ya'll know, I would not ever go into the bush, and dig up trilliums, etc. It's not illegal here, but I don't agree with doing that. In my experience, what grows in the ditches tend to be escaped garden flowers, as the soil is regularly cut/disturbed!!

Nancy.

Nancy I am so with you!!! I love to go shopping for free plants.
There is a park around here that has some nice things (mostly shrubs) that will reseed into a vacant area next to it. Ive gotten some kind of Currant(Ribes) and a Symphoricarpos (white snowberry) starts in pots on the back steps.
I have relatives that live around the Seattle area. There is a patch of their yard that natives 'blow into', as it is near a wild area. Ive gotten Tellima grandiflora, Geum macrophyllum (Large leaf Water Avens), and some sort of fern.
CMK

It's a good argument for not having too neat a garden. If I know it's a noxious weed, out it comes, but iffy plants get to linger a while among the rough edges and leaves that didn't get raked yet.

Wildlife plants all kinds of interesting things: I don't know about red-twig dogwood but Cornus florida, the white dogwood, comes up where birds drop seeds that have been processed through the bird-gut and are ready to grow. Wind and water help transport seeds. Aren't wild gardens fun?

Nell

Here is a great article on wildflowers from Encarta at MSN. It tells the history of wildflowers and gives a look at the future of many current agencies whose purpose is to propagate and preserve all of the US wildflowers. So many wildflowers are near extinction. They are rapidly being replaced by agriculture and growing populations.

I was looking for laws regarding digging in the ditches and got sidetracked LOL. I'll go back and search a little more.

I have a few wildflowers that I dug on our own prairie pastures and replanted in my garden. They look nice there but I have since realized that I enjoy seeing them in their native spaces in large wonderful swaths of color, much better.

MeMo

Here is a link that might be useful: Wildflowers

Thanks Memo -that is a good read!! It's true, I have a deer meadow behind me, full of wild asters and golden rod right now and it is gorgeous!!

Nancy.

Hi MeMo,
How are things going for you? I haven't been in the conversation side lately, so I don't know if you have given updates on how much gardening you have been able to do.

I looked up the article, and skimmed it. I want to go back and read it some more, because I learned some things while looking there. I have one plant of Queen Anne's Lace, but it looks like it won't bloom until next year. Hopefully it won't be tall and spindly because of my soil amendments as the article said they could. She also gave me a start of Sweet Annie, which I can't decide if I like or not.

Let us know what you find out about the laws, especially our state of Nebraska, which the article reminded me we do have wildflowers planted on our roadways. I am getting the urge to go exploring when the gas prices go down some.

Thanks,
Sue