Well we have had around 60 responses regarding starting a Canadian native plant forum here on Gardenweb - honestly I don't think it would matter if we had a thousand responses as far as Garden web goes, I think they believe there are 6 people living here in Canada - Thanks for knottyceltic for answering questions and responding to peoples growing interest in native plants. It has come to my attention today that there may be a alternative. I actually received an email from a member who thought I started this group..lol which I didn't anyways I'll get to it - the group is called http://groups.y****.com/group/nativerareplants/ (just select the URL copy and paste) I have replaced ahoo with 4 stars I suggest that if you are interested in native plants to join and support this group and most of all have fun learning & trading our own native plants Cheers Jeff

Oh, those are some nice things. I like dahoon holly, I believe it is one of the parents of Ilex 'Savannah' and other hybrids with American holly. I have two sweetbay magnolias myself - they have wonderfully sweet blooms. I doubt I can dig up the rest of that grass today - it has been raining non-stop since before dawn and it is now noon. But it will stop eventually and then I can go and pull out some of the stilt grass (invasive) near the creek before it goes to seed. Giving the grass to the neighbors benefits me - their property is higher than mine and when it rains hard, dirt washes into the street and into my yard! This grass will help stabilize the area (and is working already). And I needed the area where the grass was to grow a native crabapple and hawthorn. I decided it was ridiculous to let the grass have the majority of my sunny areas!

I guess we can be done with this now that the event is over. Hope it energized a lot of people to get out and remove invasives.

Hi, I don't think many plants compete well with the ivy. Someone here can probably comment more on that. The plants you've chosen have a rather large variety of growing requirements... V. bluebells generally take a rich woodsy soil with a fair amount of shade. V. creeper is a ground cover that I don't think will do well in pots. Elderberries get very big, sucker and like quite a bit of water and at least part sun. Green coneflowers get very big. I have huge clumps of them growing by the creek. I am not positive of their growing requirements, but they are growing wild in my yard in part sun and above average moisture. Great blue lobelia requires at least part sun and above average moisture. That might do OK in a pot. Some types of milkweed have a large taproot, so I'm not sure they will do well in pots. I'm not sure if they all have taproots, though. Blue wood aster may do OK in pots. Most types of JPW get very large. They like above average water and at least part sun, preferably full. While I think there are many natives that would do well in pots, I am not sure all those you have in mind would work well. I hope I'm not discouraging you from trying natives in pots. You may want to do a little more research on what you chose to try. Hopefully others here can offer their thoughts. I'm by no means an expert. As far as IDs, the only one I know from your pics is the one in the pink pot--a hosta. Blue Ridge Mountain Girl