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Though an old gardener, I am but a young blogger. The humor and added alliteration are free.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Dayflower Difficulties
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Saturday, June 21, 2025
Natives Now

There are many forms of Asteraceae, composite flowers of the Sunflower family, that bloom and attract native insects and birds on the prairie. Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) is one of those, 2-3 feet tall and easily visible among the grasses. It does not, contrary to myth, repel fleas from man nor from beast.
Another Asteraceae member presently blooming are the Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). This gray-green, hairy-leafed plant doesn't compete well with prairie grasses, but it sprouts willingly on disturbed ground. If I showed you a picture of my vegetable garden right now, you'd think I was growing it preferentially there (which I do, since I don't weed it out unless it is adjacent to a tomato, zucchini, or other intentional planting.
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Quivera Roadtrip
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Panorama of Little Salt Marsh, Quivera National Wildlife Refuge |
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Time to Stop and Appreciate the Finer Things
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'Hope for Humanity' |
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Liatris spicata |
Time to look and stop to take a quick photo of 'Hope for Humanity', pictured at the top. There has to indeed be some hope for a species that breeds and distributes a rose this beautiful.
Time to pause on the walk and relish the beauty of this clump of Liatris spicata, returning year after year to the roadside northeast of the house. A "blazing star" of the highest magnitude (see what I did there?).Time to appreciate that the Kansas state flower is the native Sunflower, thriving where the ground is disturbed by hoof or man, a roadside beacon to reflect the morning sunshine.![]() |
'Morden Sunrise' |
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'Comte de Chambord' |
I think we'll just leave this blog entry right here, in a light and educational moment, and not veer off into the weeds of biology trying to extend it.
Friday, June 14, 2024
Weed of the Week
You see, Mrs. ProfessorRoush texted me with a picture of this plant last Saturday afternoon while I was on the lawn-mower, busily engaged in my weekly Saturday work chores. She had found it while taking Bella for a walk down the road and although it takes an exceptional floral display to attract her attention, this plant had "understood the instructions," as the "fly" youngsters say. Mrs. ProfessorRoush wanted me to identify the plant for her and although her "snap" was a less focused and composed photo than the photograph above, I was happy to immediately fulfill her expectation of my omniscience in regards to plant identification and simply texted back this weblink: https://kswildflower.org/flower_details.php?flowerID=90, thus temporarily meeting her minimal expectations of my usefulness. As women in general, and especially Mrs. ProfessorRoush, are often left less-than-impressed by my prowess in this and many other areas, I then said a quick prayer of thanks to the benevolent floral gods before resuming mowing.
While it can put on an impressive floral display in June and July, Crownvetch or Purple Crown Vetch (classified as Coronilla varia or Securigera varia, as there is some current dispute over the taxonomy) is certainly an invasive foreign species here on the Kansas prairie and my placement of it into the "weed" category is not just a literary liberty. This leguminous vine, a native of Africa, Asia and Europe, is planted for erosion control and roadside plantings due to its aggressive nature, deep interwoven root system and drought-resistant leaves, and it has now naturalized in most of these continental US states. As a veterinarian, I'm also aware that while it provides a valuable protein-rich feed source for ruminants, its high nitroglycoside content makes it toxic for horses and other non-ruminants, so its invasive nature is a threat to more than just neighboring plants struggling to compete for light, space and water.For the time-being, clumps of Crownvetch are blooming nearly everywhere on the prairie in my vicinity, pleasing less-discriminating plant connoisseurs such as Mrs. ProfessorRoush and vexing those like me whose sense of natural balance is disturbed by nonnative plant species in our landscapes. I must concede that it provides a colorful and pleasing display, although the hue, while predominantly light pink, is just a little too purple for my unequivocal liking. Happily, although Crownvetch loves disturbed soil, this is not a weed that requires considerable time to keep out of my garden beds, so I can stay silent and allow Mrs. ProfessorRoush her appreciation and enjoyment of it along the roadsides and cow pastures of our local prairie, all while I bask in her justified admiration of me as her personal plant encyclopedia.
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Eu-for-weed-ia?
I'm not personally expecting a bout of leucorrhoea, but since I should always be prepared (even if I wasn't a Boy Scout), and the plant's presence and it's sap doesn't bother me and the deer won't bother it, I'm resolved to leave this clump right where it started, an affirmation of the value of native plants and a positive sign of my evolution as a gardener. I'll still pull it from my strawberry patch, however!
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Longhorns Ho!
Yesterday was an outside day in ProfessorRoush-land, work to be done, and some exploration in areas that I don't frequently explore. I mowed and piddled in the garden to my heart's content, the second mowing of the year starting at 9:30 a.m. and then doing other chores until I looked up at last to see it near 5:00 p.m., the afternoon vanished seemingly in seconds. Most of the work was prompted by the arrival this week of the Longhorn cattle that a friend (actually the son-in-law of a neighbor), summer pastures on our land and the neighbors pasture. Aren't they beautiful? ProfessorRoush likes having cows around, even skinny cows with big menacing horns, and they make a conversation piece for neighbors far and wide, creating a little traffic on the road from the townies coming to "Aw" and stare.
The Longhorn appearance, however, prompts me annually to walk the far fence, the one that I DIDN'T rebuild when we purchased the land, my border line with the golf course. It's an original, easily over 50 years old, maybe more like 80 years old, with Osage Orange posts that occasionally get caught in the burns, and I often need to hike up the back hill with a new T-post to shore it up. The picture below is a view of my back garden and the house and grounds from the far hillside. Yesterday, all was well with the fence and I opened the gate to let the cattle into my pond area.![]() |
Poison Ivy |
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