It’s a snowy day at Plant Exchange Blog. The kind of day to think about the yard and flowerbeds for next season and enjoy a peony bouquet of ideas. Below is a suburban city lot in the Midwest. The homeowner skillfully created a soil berm in the flat yard that displays all the flowerbed plants … Continue reading
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day January 15th
Welcome to Plant Exchange Blog, USDA Zone 4b-5a, on the Northern Plains. It’s 10 degrees F. this morning with prairie breezes, brief snow showers, and an occasional ground blizzard. Indoors it’s warm and sunny. Our growing amaryllis is a promise of spring just as we near the midpoint of winter. Once blooming, it responds well … Continue reading
Search for Beautiful Plants that Grow Well Here
Some people like to discover their own new plants. They choose them from seed company catalogs or websites providing seeds nationwide. They read the general growing tips, choose a plant and see what happens when they grow it locally. Some people use the recommendations of regional nursery personnel who have tried many new plants. Some … Continue reading
The Plots Thicken
Pollinator plots continue at Lewis & Clark Recreation Area after challenging weed and weather issues of the past five years. Shane Bertsch, District Park Supervisor at Lewis & Clark Recreation Area and Dale Dawson, Conservation Foreman there, planned and implemented large wildflower and native grass pollinator plots at the park entrance. Wildflowers such as these … Continue reading
For You, Reader
Holiday wishes of opportunity and good fortune for all. Thank you, readers, for showing up this year! Thanks to all the contributors that make reading the Plant Exchange blog worthwhile.
Fall Spirit at the Prairie
Earlier this fall, we strolled the path to the top of Spirit Mound. This site is documented by the Lewis and Clark expedition in their Corps of Discovery up the Missouri River. They left their boats and trekked about five miles north on land to see the vista from this spot that they had heard … Continue reading
Before We Forget Colors of Autumn
Fall color plants can be the high point of the growing season. Annuals that were stars all summer, disappear with frost, leaving space for cold-tolerant plants to take center stage. Some are easy to grow. One of many plants that display color in fall in this region is the hardy chrysanthemum. It’s a perennial commonly … Continue reading
Between Seasons
Between the stop and start of seasons is a space that gives the amaryllis time to grow and produce lily-sized blossoms. It’s the time when the blooms of last season’s Portulaca (moss rose) under the grow light finally catches your attention. Now, between seasons, the blooms of December peppers satisfy the hungry spirit more than … Continue reading
Snow for Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving from Plant Exchange Blog! Awaking to snow, wild plum branches are so distinct. The world is new. Grasses each so distinct, contrast against white. Chickadee friends depend on seeds and sometimes disperse them. We’re all in this together. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
What’s Global Warming to Lilacs?
Lilacs in bloom across northern states are a reliable marker of spring. The common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is so predictable in the plant’s adjustment to seasonal conditions before it presents its spring bloom, that lilacs have been studied nationally since the 1970’s as a harbinger of spring. Here’s a photo from this spring of local … Continue reading
