I learned this same lesson when I transplanted native verbena and achillea to the yard beds! There is a reason they can survive in the wild. I thought I would never get rid of the underground runners of the verbena....then there was the eupatorium rugosum that self-seeded everywhere!

Even if native, every plant to it's place and it's function.

Don't expect (for example) the mass covering pink oenethera speciosa to behave well in a formal bed. It's much better covering miles of highway center lane (lol)...due to it's habits. And it looks truly lovely there...much better than fescue.

Sandy where did you get the corydalis in the first place? I am assuming it reseeds. I found Corydalis lutea on Amazon but the reviews said the seed had to be stratified and they had no luck getting germination. What I am seeing is called a perennial. A yellow corydalis was mentioned years ago in a magazine I read but I never see it for sale.

The corydalis in my woods just showed up, reseeded no doubt by birds, or maybe the seed was there all along and came up when I disturbed the ground. This one is just a small annual with yellow flowers and it is an ephemeral that goes away after blooming; though you can get other perennial types in various on-line nurseries and sometimes at local garden centers. Don't have any idea where you could buy seed for this little annual one. It might be corydalis flavula or aurea. Not sure which one. I does spread everywhere but it is so pretty and disappears so quickly that it isn't a problem.

Sandy

Ever since I read that magazine article, I have been interested in Corydalis. The writer was from the East. It may be that it was a wild woodland plant for them too. I can order plants of one garden type Corydalis but the shipping would $9 and I'm stingy. I will have to look in the woods.

Corydalis micrantha does occur natively on the "prairie" remnants in NE Oklahoma. It's an annual and very ephemeral (lol)...seems it's here for a couple of weeks then gone. It grows in the winter, but the small rosettes aren't noticeable, till the yellow bloom.

I remember seeing corydalis at one of my favorite nurseries when I lived on the east coast. It was reasonable priced but so many other things were higher up on my "wish list",alas, never tried it
so many plants, so little money, lol

This is my little native corydalis. It might be micrantha. I've never tried to identify it precisely.

Sandy

It could be...I can't tell most Corys apart, but it's sure cute whatever it is.

I love the foliage on that plant. What a beautiful little surprise to find that. My Flora of MO by Steyermark shows Corydalis crystalline, C. flavula, C. micrantha, C. aurea, and C. montana in Jasper County. I think you are in Newton. My book does not show flavula , aurea or montana in Newton County but you are so close to Jasper that I think any of those could be considered. The book calls one silvery- glaucous, one dull gray green, one very silvery green, and one silvery green. I don't know what to call the color of your leaves, but they look beautiful.

Yes, we are in Newton COunty. By half a mile, lol. That little corydalis started out in the woods, now it has spread over the whole garden, but I don't really care, it's so cute, doesn't crowd anything, and is gone by the middle of May. It comes back in the winter. That picture was yesterday.

Sandy