This often leads to concerns about burning their prairie in the spring, as it would seem that putting fire to seed laying on the ground or hanging in the still-standing growth would compromise the seed’s viability.

By doing a fall seeding, the seed in fact has all winter to drop down and make good contact with the soil well before the spring burn. The wind and rain get most of the seed down to ground level. The freeze-thaw cycle then works the seed into the soil. The temperature of a moving fire is not high enough to kill the seed and in some cases heat will help a species.  Ceanothus americanus (New Jersey Tea), for example, benefits from having a treatment of boiling water poured over the seeds to aid in germination for spring planting.

Maricel oversees hundreds of boxes packed and shipped during this busy season.

Roots are carefully packed in moistened peat moss and kept chilled until they are shipped.

Site prep on April 19th – at least the soil is not frozen.

Planting a cactus pad into a sandy bed.

Question: Can you explain the coloring system more?

Answer: The following key to the map colors provides more detailed explanations than the key that accompanies the maps on our website. Notice that although there is county-level data for species occurrence, native status is only indicated at the state-level:

Q: Can I plant a species outside of its range on the map? Should I?

A: In many cases the answer to the first question is yes. Our range maps are not hardiness maps—they do not show where a species can or cannot be planted and survive. Rather, they show where self-reproducing, wild populations are documented to occur. North American native plants can often be planted outside of their native range. When a species has become naturalized in a state outside its native range, it is represented by the blue counties in our range maps.

While some people believe that introducing North American native species beyond their native range is harmless, some restorationists, conservation biologists and others object to it. Wherever you stand on this issue, it is always important to avoid introducing new species to sites near remnant native plant communities (for example, state natural areas). In fact, when planting in the vicinity of remnants one should not only use strictly native species, but should furthermore use seed or plants of local genetic origin.

Q: Are these maps the same as on the USDA website?

A: The USDA range maps indicate whether a species is native or introduced to the continent of North America. The BONAP maps indicate whether a species is native or introduced to a particular state or province. As an example, compare the USDA maps to the BONAP maps for Amorpha fruticosa or Agastache foeniculum. The USDA maps give the impression that these species have wider native ranges than the BONAP maps indicate.

Actually, much of the data that USDA uses for their maps came from BONAP. BONAP no longer supplies data to the USDA, but continues to update its independent database, and has added hundreds of thousands of county records since then. Furthermore, BONAP has deleted many county records that, upon investigation, turned out to be in error.

Comment: A word of caution. Not all the information that went into these maps has been properly vetted. I know for a fact that there are mapping errors in the state where I work. Don’t trust all of those outliers.

Response: This comment reminds us that these maps are drafts. There are county occurrence records that are in error, and there are counties where species occur but have not been recorded. There are even local experts who would dispute the native status of some species in some states. With time BONAP will refine their database, but there may never be a perfectly accurate and complete picture. The range maps we have right now provide general outlines with some rough edges. The edges may be more rough in some states than others.

The most common method for putting down seed to initiate a prairie planting is a fall or frost broadcasting.  This is usually done between October 15 and March 15, after a year of site preparation.  It is not uncommon for people to notice birds visiting the ground that has been recently planted.  Generally, this is not a problem.  Most of the prairie seed is small and when it is evenly distributed over a large area it is randomly placed in a manner that typically does not occur in nature.  When birds eat small seeds typically it is directly from the plant and they can consume many seeds at one time.  A bird may find a few randomly scattered seeds but it will not find many.  The situation is similar for seed broadcast onto snow.  Within an hour of being put down on the surface, the seed will begin to melt into the snow.

Some seeds will inevitably be consumed by birds, insects and rodents, but the seed count for our seed mixes is high to accommodate for this.  When a seed mix has a seed count of 100 seeds per square foot most of those seeds will not ever become a mature plant.  Some attrition is built into the formula.

Swamp Candles (Lysimachia terrestris)

Currently this calls up a list of 189 species. They all have adaptations to tolerate saturated (oxygen-deficient) soils, at least periodically. However, only some of these will tolerate periods of standing water. For those who are planning a lakeshore restoration, pond construction or other project with shallow waters for part or all of the season, I have compiled a list of appropriate plant species (see below).

Great Bur Reed (Sparganium eurycarpum)

Most of the species listed below tolerate water depths of less than one foot, and some for only part of the growing season. A few of these species, however, such as Hardstem Bulrush (Scirpus acutus), will tolerate water depths of one foot or greater. At this time we do not offer any floating-leaved, submergent or free-floating plant species, which are dominant in deep, open marshes.

We have annual, free Prairie Tours each summer.  In this short video, visitors at our August Prairie Tour walk through Prairie Dock, Water Hemlock and Cord Grass.

[Steve at Prairie Moon Nursery] The really tall ones are the Silphium terebinthinaceum; Prairie Dock. That’s the one with the true elephant ear type leaves. The really tall one here with the smooth flowering stems that’s the Silphium the Prairie Dock. Again, it’s another yellow composite flower. Some of the other ones that you will see a lot of…This is kind of interesting this is the Cord Grass (Spartina pectinata), one of the really neat things is the sod from the Cord Grass was typically used for the sod houses out on the prairies. It is a wetland species but I’ve seen it on some of the driest sand species also but just really short, and that speaks to certain amount of diversity too. You’ll see in our catalog these are the dry species, these are the wet species but in a natural environment you’ll see a really big crossover in range on that. Another species that’s quite overstated here now is the Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata), and that’s of the same family of the Hemlock that Socrates used to kill himself, his was the European Hemlock, this is Water Hemlock, equally as poisonous if you decide to munch on the root but I just would not munch on any of it…just to be safe!

1. The seeds of grafted plants produce plants with the characteristics of only one of the parent varieties. Customers who plant areas to be managed as whole plant communities require plants that are self-reliant (not dependent on the qualities of another variety to thrive) and produce plants from seed that are similar to the parent plant in environmental tolerances.

2. Native plant enthusiasts appreciate the natural heritage of native plants. Grafted plants are new creations, not historical representatives.

3. There isn’t a need to modify our native plants because they are already well adapted to every natural sun and soil situation.

True, Common Milkweed is rhizomatous–meaning it will spread vegetatively by its roots.  It will also successfully propagate itself by seed.  Many of the stray or wild milkweed plants that appear in your garden unannounced are probably from an airborne seed finding its way into your soil.  But Common Milkweed will not persist in a planting nor will it overwhelm other native plants as may Canada Goldenrod  and, of course, the many non-native, invasive species that we warn you about.

There are native species we don’t carry because we consider them to be too aggressive; they persist and will overwhelm a planting.  Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and Riverbank or Wild Grape (Vitis riparis) are a few.

Here are some photos that we hope will get you excited about this plant again (as you once may have been as a child!):

The flower may not be this bright and attractive on all plants, but close examination of this common native plant reveals that the flowers are really beautiful!  Have you ever smelled the Common Milkweed flower? It is very delicate and pleasing.

Everyone knows Milkweed species are host plants for the Monarch caterpillar.  You probably also learned that the bright colors displayed by many of the insects that feed on Milkweed plants are to warn predators that the insects have been feeding on a “toxic” or unpalatable  plant.  Many animals (deer, rabbits, cattle) will not eat Asclepias species because of the bitter taste of the leaves  – another reason for its success as a genus across the country.

Not everyone knows the benefits of Common Milkweed to Pollinators.  Can you see this Bumblebee?

Here the flower is turning to the seedpod.  You can distinguish Common Milkweed from other milkweeds by its prickly seedpods. Other Asclepias species have smooth pods.

I was happy to see that the city did not mow this large patch of Common Milkweed growing in a ditch along a busy highway.

Hi this is Steve at Prairie Moon Nursery. I’m going to point out one of the worst invasive, exotic species we have right now and that’s the Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) here.  I’ve seen woodlands where its totally gotten rid of every other native plant/all the other plants which happen to be native around it.  You can see here it’s growing amongst the Thalictrum dasycarpum; Purple Meadow Rue.  I’m also seeing some of the Heracleum (maximum); Cow Parsnip.  These are relatively robust species but the Garlic Mustard will out-compete it long-term so it’s real important that we pull them up.

Dame’s Rocket does indeed look a lot like native Phlox.  Phlox divaricata, the Wild Blue Phlox was blooming a few weeks ago and enjoys the same wetter soil and woodland-edge habitat as Dame’s Rocket.  Phlox pilosa – Prairie Phlox is just beginning to bloom now as well.  But one distinguishing feature of the two species enables anyone to easily tell them apart:  four petals on the Dame’s Rocket flower; five petals on a true Phlox:

invasive Dame's Rocket - 4 flower petals

native Prairie Phlox - 5 petals

native Wild Blue Phlox - 5 petals

Here are some more photos of the Dame’s Rocket to aid in easy identification:

Dame's Rocket leaves/stem - mid-May in MN

Dame's Rocket can reach heights of 4 feet

You'll often see a large group of plants due to its aggressive nature

If you have this growing in or near your native plantings, get it out!  And encourage your neighbors not to dig up ditch plants for transplanting and not to buy seeds/plants, as it is still commercially available!