This grows wild on my property -- I usually find it along the edge of the drive in dry, dappled shade/part sun, or along the path in the woods, which is the same. I don't know if it likes moist soils, since I unfortunately don't have any, but it's native range includes zone 8 and parts of Texas and Louisiana near the Gulf Coast, so I'd say it does fine in hotter climates in the southeast. The one thing I have noticed re:culture is that it doesn't seem to like being crowded by other plants, either in the wild or in my garden beds. I've got one small colony that has variation in the shades of yellow when it blooms. I meant to get down there and collect seeds last year but never got around to it.

OMG Marie - I don't want to be a downer, but did you read the negative feedback at Garden Watchdog? The most protracted rant came from a lady who did exactly what you are proposing and sounded like she wanted to go back in time and dope slap that very idea out of her own head by the end of her ordeal. That being said, I HAVE done a group order of Helebores on a smaller scale from SG and it was OK. There were only three of us - Dee, another swapper friend and I. The plants were nice enough, but small as should be expected. Nothing that has inspired me to order from him again, but I wouldn't totally rule it out. I get their emails and laugh at their pricing because whether it is something exotic-ish or as common as Garlic chives he seems to charge the same two pricing structures for everything and presents it with the same huckster patter. Of course he also has some good growing information to impart also. He must really be a character in person.

So yeah, you can't just broadcast seed for some of the wildflowers and expect them to grow thru the turf. Especially when the clovers and bird's foot trefoil are supplying the lawn with lots of nitrogen, (and shade in the drought times) and keeping the turf lush! So I have transplanted quite a few tumble mustard, high knapweed, chicory, fleabane, smartweed, mouse-ear hawkweed, autumn hawkbit, etc. this fall. I transplanted some during the summer months with varying degrees of success - I hope these fall plantings work better. The problem with transplanting them during the hot sunny months: they don't take as well; I'm putting them in bare spots and disturbing the soil which leads to a lot of unwanted weeds; and of course they need to be watered which leads to a huge number of sprouting unwanted weeds! Next summer, I have a different plan. I will cover any bare spots with corn gluten meal which acts as a pre-emergent herbicide for several weeks and then decomposes to a fertilizer by the time the weather turns cooler and I'm ready to plant stuff without just getting undesirable weeds like plantain, knotweed, and crabgrass. My plan was initially to not have to water this lawn anyway and now I see that watering in times of drought really leads to unwanted weeds. The lawn is thin topsoil on top of pure sand so it has always died every few years when a bad enough drought hit. I have mulched endless leaves into the lawn for 3 years and with the great number of earthworms that brings, my soil is getting better. Also the shade and nitrogen provided by the clovers, vetch, and bird's foot helps the actual grass stay green. Some plants simply do NOT like to be transplanted - bird's foot is one of those. Fortunately, you can collect seed from the pods somewhere where it is growing and broadcast them over the lawn and it will eventually take hold. It is very small the first year (I haven't even been able to determine when it is sprouting), noticeable the second year if you know what to look for, and healthy and flowering by the third year. There is a saying: "the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, and the third year it leaps!" White and red clover and violets and of course dandelions will all grow easily if seed is spread over the turf, especially if it is mown very short first. The next thing I'm working on is which weeds help or kill other grasses and weeds. Obviously wide leaves like dandelion, plantain, and violets deny grass beneath them water and sun and can choke it out. But I'm more interested in chemicals that plants produce to fight or help competition. There is a lot of info available on companion planting for vegetables but for weeds - not much. So I'm just watching and watching. I had one patch of a lush green prostrate knotweed that killed everything beneath it. Another patch of lush pinkish knotweed that did the same. But regular knotweed is not as bad. Autumn hawkbit (like delicate dandelions) inhibits sprouting near it, even of its own seed! But it doesn't bother growing grass. Mouse-ear hawkweed does the same and so sends runners like strawberries to propagate itself into dense mats which will then smother grass. The first line of defense against unwanted weeds is to mow the grass very short, but this tactic is NOT available when the goal is to have lots of wanted weeds. Next summer I plan to try spraying leaves of dandelions, plantain, and violets with vinegar and a tsp. of dish soap on a hot, sunny day. This is said to kill the leaves but not the root. That's O.K. with me if it works. I just want to hold back these aggressive weeds from taking over.

Thanks for the help. I wish I had the camera but hubby has it and I don't think to take it when I go to the library where I've seen them growing. Maybe I should say they look more like chives with yellow flowers.