Native Plants & Wildflowers - Growing from seed and other methods of propagation (Upper Midwest Focus - WI)

[CrazyEd]

I am going to use this thread to share knowledge (and experiments) of growing native plants and wildflowers from seed throughout the 2019 season and beyond. I'll also cover how to further propagate established plants, harvest seed and clean seed.

Prairie's used to cover much of the landscape in some areas of our country, a sea of native grasses and flowers and with prescribed burns (fire) they thrived. Extremely diverse and complex ecosystems they were. Then man came along and decided to farm and homestead and that was the beginning of the end. Frankly many of these native plants just are not around anymore. They are of critical importance to insects, butterflies, birds and wildlife in general. They can also really benefit your soil, and many are very drought tolerant. I am lucky that a lot of our farm has never seen a plow, but at the same point much of it is overgrown with woody vegetation (trees). Thankfully due to a tornado 20 years ago and some oak wilt, some areas have opened up and there is evidence of these native plants that once dominated the landscape. We try to do our part to bring them back and help them reestablish where we can.

I enjoy growing a lot of these different plants and species in my backyard at home because of their beauty, but also they are low maintenance and I do want to do my part to help native pollinators such as bees and butterflies. The backyard also provides me with a great seed source because seed can be very expensive with some plants. With some species all it takes is a few plants to have hundreds or even thousands of seeds. I try to avoid plants that are extremely aggressive, but at the same time it's easy to take excess plants and seed to the farm and let them run wild.

If you want to learn more about this topic I encourage you to stick around and ask questions. As I get this thing going i'll try to post a lot of pictures of what I've done and what i'm doing. As well as useful resources that I've found. Stay tuned!

 

[Catscratch]

I'm all in! Going to watch this with a lot of interest as it's something I spend a great deal of time working on myself. Post everything you do and take lots of pics.
Thanks!

 

[Livesintrees]

Ok I’m asking question. What can I plant on the edges of the woods. Or on the woods edges themselves. I have some backyard and front yard areas where I’d like to get wildflowers going. Purely for asthesitcs as the wife to be has been asking about doing so for awhile now

 

[CrazyEd]

I get seed from a few different places and I have listed them in order of my preference below. It's always important to find native seed that is true to species (not hybridized), same goes for plants if you are buying from a nursery. Also try and get seed with a source origin closest to where you are planting. Finding native, localized seed can be difficult to locate and while it's the preferred method, it's not always possible. IE if you live in Dane County WI, it's preferred to find a milkweed seed that orginated in Dane County Wisconsin, not seed from somewheresville North Carolina.

• Legally gather seed in the wild from our farm, or other areas where I have permission to gather seed.
• Prairie Frontier
• Prairie Moon

I like to grow my plants in rootmaker trays or direct seed into the ground in their final location or in a nursery for transplanting. Here are a few I started in late December before winter came. Many seeds need to go through a stratification process to germinate. You can learn all about the different methods of germination here.

Pictures below, you can see I use the express 18 rootmakers. Really I just packed them all full with a good compost mix. Used the watering can to make sure all the cells were full with no air pockets. Then I sprinkled the various seeds over and put a small amount of dirt over the top of most species - some species actually need to be exposed to light to germinate. Then i watered them down and put a window screen over it to keep the mice and birds away. They are currently frozen solid and have 10" of snow on them. I'll make another post at some point of the various species I am growing when I get time.

 

[roymunson]

Ok I’m asking question. What can I plant on the edges of the woods. Or on the woods edges themselves. I have some backyard and front yard areas where I’d like to get wildflowers going. Purely for asthesitcs as the wife to be has been asking about doing so for awhile now

This...

I've got a 1/4 acre or so in front of the cabin that I don't wanna have to keep mowed. Seems like a good place for some butterfly and bee habitat... Just a midwest mix?

 

[Catscratch]

Here are some flower plots I did last year with generic mixes I found at either Walmart or Orschelns. Certainly not natives like CrazyEd is planting but proof that you can have a nice plot without much work. I planted with TnM and didn't water or weed, just walked away and let them do what they do. These plots were constantly full of bee's, bugs, and humming birds.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[CrazyEd]

This...

I've got a 1/4 acre or so in front of the cabin that I don't wanna have to keep mowed. Seems like a good place for some butterfly and bee habitat... Just a midwest mix?

For both of you, a lot depends on how much light can get to the area you are focused on. Edge of woods I think partial shade/partial sun. Any kind of partial shade mix would probably be a good bet. One particular species I find that Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias Tuberosa) does pretty well in a partial shade setting. While it prefers full sun, I have a butterfly plant on the northwest side of my house essentially under a massive (24" at the base) white pine. The single plant I think produced 48 milkweed pods.

While this plant is not in bloom, clearly it's thriving under a huge tree that is not pictured.

In Bloom

Other woodland species, wild bergmot, jacobs ladder, wild geranium, common milkweed, purple milkweed, poke milkweed. The more sun the better.

Just like a food plot, site prep before planting is important. Less competition = the better.

 

[CrazyEd]

Here is how native plants can benefit your soil and are drought tolerant. Look at the tap root on this pale purple coneflower.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Thanks for this thread

Missouri Dept conservation website is porn for me

Tons of good stuff (shrubs,trees,etc) that make great pollinators

I plant trees from november through mid february. By then, MDC starts shipping and I become a wild man with the dibble..........

bill

 

[Barndog56]

Excellent thread. I've been growing sunflowers, marigolds, nasturtiums, and five o' clocks in my vegetable garden every year, along with the red clover that comes up on it's own. I think the proliferance of pollinators and beneficials they attract are a huge reason I have almost no insect damage and and very high production.

I've been wanting to add a lot of wildflowers in to my apple orchard but I can't find any seed mixes that I can actually afford. So I'm expanding my garden and planting a bunch there that I will harvest seed from every year to plant into the orchard. Here's what I'm trying.

Bachelor's button
Wild Bergamot / Bee Balm
Coneflower
California Poppy
Borage
Butterfly Milkweed
Hyssop
Spearmint
Mammoth Dill

 

[CrazyEd]

The best way to get your own seed source is by getting a few plants going. Some places like prairie moon even sell plants. You can get like 6 varieities / 30 some plants for like $140. Sounds expensive but thats the quickest way. I like to go the seed route.

I think I have 8-10 mature butterfly milkweed plants in my yard (5 years old) and this past fall I picked 3.5oz of seed, that's like 15,000 seeds. As we get into spring and summer I'll be posting a lot about growing milkweed. I find it best to start the seeds in early june and keep them well watered until August. If you are diligent with your watering, you can successfully transplant to permanent home, again if you can keep them watered. I did this with swamp milkweed last year and had plants that were 3' tall by september/october that I started from seed a few months earlier.

 

[Catscratch]

You are planting seed in RM 18's and then transplanting to permanent spots while dormant the following fall... Do you have to move them to a larger pot at some point or just plant straight from RM's? Why are you planting in pots instead of direct seeding? Is it to make watering easier the first summer?

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I like this, especially since you are in the upper midwest. We converted a cow pasture back into native prairie species about 10 years ago. It has been a slow progression but after mowing the first couple of years and putting together a prescribed fire plan it is starting to come around pretty well. I have also been clearing a south facing hillside of basically everything except for the oak trees. I am doing this on my own and without any help it is a slow process. Im hoping that within the next few years I have enough opened up to carry a fire at least on a portion of the hillside. My end goal is to return it to open grown oaks and dry bluff prairie.

The property is somewhat of local historic significance only in that it use to have a RR running through the property with a couple large trestles spanning the valley below. The trains would stop on the property and have parties where they would actually set up a temporary dance floor. Due to this fact we were actually able to track down some pictures from the historic society that showed what the landscape looked like before (or at least shortly after white settlement) I'd like to see it at least partially restored to that point.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

 

[CrazyEd]

You are planting seed in RM 18's and then transplanting to permanent spots while dormant the following fall... Do you have to move them to a larger pot at some point or just plant straight from RM's? Why are you planting in pots instead of direct seeding? Is it to make watering easier the first summer?

At the farm we do a lot of direct seeding. Some species are very difficult to grow, therefore I do grow a lot of things at home in rootmakers as well. A lot of the stuff I grow in rootmakers are going into my yard as seed sources. I can baby them along, water a ton, etc. Milkweed for example, if I start them in early june and water them every single day, they can be ready to transplant in august, some later in the fall. If I have too many plants at home, i will take them to the farm and just pop them in the ground and let them take over.

 

[cavey]

Keep it coming, this is a very informative thread!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Great thread C.E. !! Even though we're in a different region, some of the plants you're growing actually grow well here - butterfly milkweed is one. I'll be watching this thread.

Side note ….... I just bought some bees wax from a gent who's the VP of the Pa. Beekeepers Assoc. He explained that many honey bee hives are lost not to colony collapse disorder (CCD), but to a mite that came from overseas. So he said keeping good habitat for native pollinators is hugely important so our food crops get pollinated. Bumble bees, mason bees, butterflies, various other bees and flies need all kinds of flowers & plants to attract them.

So what you're doing is greatly needed - bottom line. Great effort on your part !!

 

[Catscratch]

At the farm we do a lot of direct seeding. Some species are very difficult to grow, therefore I do grow a lot of things at home in rootmakers as well. A lot of the stuff I grow in rootmakers are going into my yard as seed sources. I can baby them along, water a ton, etc. Milkweed for example, if I start them in early june and water them every single day, they can be ready to transplant in august, some later in the fall. If I have too many plants at home, i will take them to the farm and just pop them in the ground and let them take over.

When you direct seed to you ever prep a small spot for a particular plant? What I'm referring to is I've tried several things to start natives... I've tried spreading seed in native pasture with the hopes that some of it would take, I've tried doing it after a burn, I've tried stomping seed into plug holes, and now I'm going to try hitting small spots (2ft diameter) with gly and eliminating competition for direct seeding. Have you tried the spot spray method for DS? I don't want to destroy the plant communities I already have with boom spraying, just want to amend what's already there.

 

[CrazyEd]

When you direct seed to you ever prep a small spot for a particular plant? What I'm referring to is I've tried several things to start natives... I've tried spreading seed in native pasture with the hopes that some of it would take, I've tried doing it after a burn, I've tried stomping seed into plug holes, and now I'm going to try hitting small spots (2ft diameter) with gly and eliminating competition for direct seeding. Have you tried the spot spray method for DS? I don't want to destroy the plant communities I already have with boom spraying, just want to amend what's already there.

The short answer is no - we don't ever prep for a specific plant.

The Long answer. So our land has been in our family for probably 100 years now. It's owned by a few different family members. The land that I specifically own was mature red oak forest with park like woods, with some conifers (jackpines) and planted white and red pines. In 1996 a tornado came through and pretty much leveled a vast majority of the oaks. Since then a lot of red oaks have continued to fill in and tons of jack pines. The nice thing here is this land never saw a blow, I believe much of it was probably prairie / Savannah type habitat. Pennsylvania sedge covers the ground, thick as the hair on a dogs back. It smothers young plants.

Our land is extremely sandy soil, and almost always a fire hazard. We can't safely do prescribed burns, it's just not safe. We use roundup. Typically early in the year before native grasses are emerged and native plants are emerged. We will spray large patches of land 1/2 to an acre around trees and things, if we see native plants we try hard to spray around them. Then we let it sit for 12-18 months, spot spray any green that emerges. The roundup does allow the native plants and grasses to be released from the Penn Sedge. Then we over seed (broadcast) on top of that. It just takes a really long time for that Penn Sedge to break down to get some soil exposed. It's a painful, slow process.