Skip, I have a bunch of wild geraniums. I'll check tomorrow and see if there are still seeds that haven't dropped.

Thanks Jay I would appreciate that!

Skip, I went out and checked, but all the Geranium maculatum seeds have long since dropped on the ground. I did find some Hostas that got eaten by deer. The weather has cooled and those shade plants are dissapearing fast. Pic is of what remains. Had it been a little earlier and I could've gotten seeds. I do have one more order for seeds from Prairie Moon to put in. If earlier in the season then I have seeds for spring blooming natives like Bloodroot, Celendine Poppy, Mertensia, Penstemons, Wild Columbine, Trillium, Jack in the Pulpit,Blue Eyed Grass,Dutchmans Breeches,Wild Ginger,Tall Bellflower, Wood Asters, and a lot of sun loving natives which is a long list.

I just got the book you recommended.Planting in a Post Wild World. Haven't started reading it yet, but there's a lot of great photos.

Soeaking of maculatum I have seeds for Hieracium maculatum, spotted hawkweed. Still looking for seeds for Hieracium venosum, rattlesnake hawkweed. I will have seeds of those to share next year.

Thanks for trying anyway. I need to come up with a few other plants to interplant with them to build a plant community like that book describes. Some of the ones you listed look like good candidates. They have to be able to survive shade, soggy soils in spring and fall, a bone dry midsummer when the silver maples are sucking the soil dry, black walnut trees, and hungry deer.

Existing vegetation is a whole lot of weeds, so first I actually need to actually prepare the ground.

I like those suggestions. I have 112' of solid fence to plant along and could fit them all in. Along with some ferns, mayapple, bottlebrush grass, northern sea oats, and Staphylea trifolia I think it would be nice all season. Ive got plant collector syndrome too. We put the fence in this year much to the dismay and objections of the neighbor. The fence is 12' inside my property line. I think a nice garden along it could soften their stance a little, not that it matters now, but perpetual conflict with them is not what I had planned.

I dont have much full sun, too many trees. My lot desperately wants to turn back into woods. What little full sun areas I have my wife wants to keep as lawn, which drives me insane. The other little bits I have I want to use as a veggie garden or I have already crammed full of plants that should spread. Then again theres always room for more so if you harvest seed Id be possibly interested in whatever you got.

I found this on google, no affiliation and never ordered from them: http://www.woodthrushnatives.com/am-online/hieracium-venosum-rattlesnakeweed

Blue Cohosh, that's another shade plant I have. That sounds like a great idea mixing the shade natives with the ferns. There are some ferns and Hostas on the east side of the house that is shaded by a large cottonwood. I just had the same idea about mixing the spring blooming natives in with them because the ferns will make them stand out and look better. I have a large bleeding heart that I want to put in there too. I have culvers root,Monarda fustulosa, Purple Prairie Clover, Leafy Prairie Clover, Partrudge Pea, Senna hebacarpa, Mimosa nutallii, New England Aster, SmoothBlue Aster, White Wood Aster, Blue Wood Aster, Solidago rigida, Verbena rigida, Leadplant, Liatris spicata, Asclepius syriaca, Mountain Mint,Rudbeckia hirta, Rudbeckia fulgida, Rattlesnake Master, Fame Flower Talinum, Lobelia siphilitica, Oenothera speciosa, Obediant Plant, Stinging Nettle, Joe Pye Weed, Tall Bellflower, Ageratina atissima, Cowpen Daisy, probably a few I forgot. I have blue baptisia and the blue I think its Ohio spiderwort. The clumps get bigger, but it doesn't spread. I grew a purple spiderwort once that spread very aggrssively.

I planted black cohosh this year. It didnt bloom but it didnt die either so thats a start

That book will go over how to mix them all together and in what proportions and layers to avoid creating a muddled mess.

I have or tried to grow a bunch of your plants. Something in my soil does not agree with Monarda, I dumped 4 packs of seed on one spot this spring and planted one near that, and none of them sprouted and the planted one turned black from the bottom up and died within a week. The penstemon, Agastache, achillea and baptisia nearby are all doing fine, although the Liatris suffered a similar fate after doing well for a while. I planted leadplant 2 years ago which is still hilariously small, but I hope they are just building roots, they didnt seem to surface until july of this year.

Ohio spiderwort is a nice plant. Flowers are on the small side and the seed/flower stalks got heavy and flopped but those plants have bloomed every single day since May. My hoary mountain mint attracted a frightening amount of bees, wasps, and similar looking creatures.

They have Dicentra eximia for sale at a land preserve here, if interested.

Id be interested in the white snakeroot, tall bellflower, and smooth blue aster

Thats good because the seeds should be ready in a few weeks. Leadplants do take a long time to get big, especially the seedlings. I have a chocolate snakeroot too. The blue cohosh takes a while too. The spiderwort, mine flops, and any unwanted seedlings are like chives, hard to pull without leaving the root in the ground. My Monardas start getting powdery mildew after flowering. I cut them back then to keep them from looking too ratty, but I keep having volunteers popping up, so I'd say they're doing good. There are 3 species of Asters that I planted and the 2 wood Asters Eurybia just showed up. Don't know if they were in one of the umpteen wildflower mixes I scattered over the years or what.

Skip, please email me your address so I can share seeds with you. I have a few books to read and may not be around here for awhile.

Jay

Hey Jay I emailed you, you might want to edit out your emai from your last comment so you dont get loads of spam