Hi again, If you are interested in some of my seeds, please give me your trade list and your email address so that I can contact you. I am not interested in SASE. I donate most of my extra seeds to my "Seeds for Classrooms" program that I arranged with the local school board and schools (6,000 pkg a couple months ago). Other extra "useful" vegetable and herb seeds get donated to disaster relief organizations. Hope to hear from you about your seeds for zone 3 hardy and interesting perennials and shrubs. Happy Gardening

I have never heard of it being considered invasive but then in rich soil it might be aggressive depending on your point of view or available space. We dug a some up in Kansas last fall where they were all along a country road growing in rather good sandy loam. It was difficult finding ones small enough to dig because what looked like a smaller plant had a root system connected to another one close by and what looked like different plants were actually many connected underground forming a cluster. It appeared they spread underground sending up new plants close to the original from what we could observe. Some plants were in good soil and some were on very rocky hard soil and the plants looked pretty similar in each situation. I would not call it invasive but it would probably take up some real space eventually in the garden. I wouldn't mind that personally, they are a nice height and form and so pretty with the silver leaves and purple flowers. I only had one of the three plants I dug up make it. I had to break them off a large root to get each one away from the clump so I didn't feel too bad digging them because most of the clump is still there.

Hey Jay, the Smilax and Rubus are in a thicket at the back of the lot and Im just going to let them grow wild for the birds. It was hard to get that close to the Rubus to take the picture, had to step through a lot of poison ivy. I just looked at that Astragalus, and on BONAP, none of them are native in my county but canadensis is close. I didnt really have this concept when I was ordering these plants and seeds a couple years ago. Crassicarpus looks like a good one for you to grow, and a food source. Ribes hirtellum and triste are native to my county, but the thorns on mine dont seem to match. My property used to be farm land I wonder if somebody grew that Ribes on purpose at some point. I just noticed a couple weeds in my front flower bed. One was a walnut tree, the other, an oak. One in the white oak by the looks of it too. Thanks squirrels! into the pot farm:

I spent a lot of time researching, buying, and planting natives over the past year. I'm not sure yet what I need to buy. We'll see what may not have come back. These are either at Lincoln or here, or both. The underlined ones are ones that didn't make it last year, so we'll give it another try. Yarrow Golden Sunflower Mix Liatris aspera Rough Blazing Star (school only) Agrimony (Roadside) Agrimonia striata American Beautyberry Collicarpa americana Aromatic aster Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (school only) Bellflower (Tall) Campanula americana Bergamot Monarda Fistulosa Bluestar (Ozark) Amsonia illustris Butterfly weed Asclepias tuberosa Columbine Aquilegia canadensis Coneflower (pale purple) Echinacea Pallida Coneflower (purple) Echinacea Purpurea Coneflower (yellow) Echinacea Paradoxa Coreopsis (Dyer's) Coreopsis Aquilegia (Have half a dozen in front of the house now) Early Meadow Rue Frostweed Verbesina virginica Ginger (Wild) Asarum canadense Goldenrod (Shiny) Solildago nitida Joe Pye Eutrochium maculatum Lead Plant Amorpha canescens Milkweed (Bloodflower) Asclepias curassavica Milkweed (Showy) Asclepias speciosa Milkweed, Antelope Horns Asclepias asperula Milkweed, Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa Milkweed, Prairie Asclepias sullivantii Milkweed, Rose Asclepias incarnata - Rose Milkweed Milkweed, Spider Asclepias viridis Partridge Pea Chamaecrista fasciculata Purple Giant Hyssop Agastache scrophulariaefolia Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium Sedum Seastar Sedum pulchellum Showy Wild Garlic Allium canadense var. lavendulare Sunflower (Early) Heliopsis helianthoides Sunflower (Early) Selma Suns Sweet Joe Pye Weed Eutrochium purpureum Verbena (Prairie) Glandularia bipinnatifida Zig Zag Goldenrod (shade!) Solidago flexicaulis