Red Dirt Ramblings®

Firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Garden Coaching
  • Travel
  • Contact
  • My Gardens
    • The Back Garden
    • The Potager
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Red Dirt Ramblings®

Firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Garden Coaching
  • Travel
  • Contact
  • My Gardens
    • The Back Garden
    • The Potager

Seeds of Promise

26 November, 2007 By Dee Nash

by Dee Nash
26 November, 2007Filed under:
  • Annuals
  • Perennials
  • Seeds
  • Wildflowers

Moss While on a walk with my dogs, Mariah and Prancer, last week, I saw this lovely moss under the trees. It is prolific this year, probably because of all the summer rain. I also noticed that the native grasses were going to seed and showing off. What struck me was the architecture of each seed head. I thought I would share some of these with you. This is Little Bluestem. blog-little-bluestem-grass.JPGI am not a native grass expert, but after this walk, I wish I were. I thought about my grandmother, Edith Juanita, and how she knew all the names of common plants. She was raised in Kiowa, Oklahoma, and learned them as a child. She taught me many things like how to grow killer tomatoes and how to cook poke sallet in the spring (in order to cleanse the blood, she said,) but I wish I’d asked more questions before she passed.

I was curious about some of the other grasses I found like this one. I tried to capture the graceful seed heads, which swung in the breeze, with my camera, but I’m afraid I didn’t. However, you can see an ever present redcedar behind them. Hint: Santa, Baby, please stuff my stocking with a new camera for Christmas. dsc01597.JPG

Since I don’t have Grandma Nita as a reference anymore, I first consulted the internet for identification. I am truly grateful for the internet and the ability to gather information, but this time, I struck out. Most photographs were of Big Bluestem and Little Bluestem, with some Indiangrass mixed in. Being a compulsive reader, I then went to Amazon and bought two books that I thought would be helpful. They came this week. Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, A Field Guide to Common Wildflowers and Plants of the Prairie Midwest, by Doug Ladd and Frank Oberle was somewhat helpful, and I do like the color pictures and chapter divisions by flower color. The section on grasses, sedges and rushes is colored gold, for example. The closest grass I found to mine is Prairie Brome, although I’m still not sure that this is correct. I then looked at Common Texas Grasses, an Illustrated Guide, by Frank W. Gould. I’m not as fond of the illustrations, which are in pen and ink, but I do like the detailed explanations beginning with the common name, followed by the Latin. If anyone knows the name of this little grass, please let me know, and I’ll update this post.

Wildflower SeedInspired by what I saw in the landscape, Bear and I cleared out a section of the lower garden and planted a package of wildflower seed that a friend bought for my birthday. The package stated that they could be planted in spring or fall. I’ll be interested to see what comes up in the spring, and I’ll post a report then. In the meantime, if you’re interested in having your own small wildflower meadow, you can find the seed at Wildflower Company. They have different mixtures for different parts of the country.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Related

Post navigation

Previous Post Hey Baby, It’s Chilly Outside
Next Post My Christmas Garden Gift List

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bill says

    12 October, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    I think your picture of little bluestem is actually splitbeard bluestem. See:
    http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Forestry/TBarnes/Assets/images/split%20beard%20bluestem.jpg

    Bill

  2. Ceri says

    26 December, 2007 at 10:49 pm

    Hi,
    Saw your comment at glutenfreegoddess and came over for a peek when I saw you liked day lilies.
    The grass looks kind of like either oat grass Chasmanthium latifolium
    http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/798/

    or Rattlesnake grass Briza media
    http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/735/

    But it is hard to tell from the picture exactly what the seed head is like.
    Cheers,
    Ceri

  3. Dee says

    2 December, 2007 at 9:12 am

    Annie, yes, it was wonderful, and I still miss her everyday. I always find that moss under the oak trees growing on sandstone. I don’t know if sandstone is neutral, but I would think it is. Now, I can’t get that moss to grow anywhere I want it. It is just a non-transplantable native.

  4. Annie in Austin says

    28 November, 2007 at 11:25 am

    How wonderful to have a grandmother who knew so much about plants, Dee. And I hope Santa brings you the camera.

    The part of your post that surprised me was that you found all that moss! Is your soil more neutral? Our abundance of rain didn’t seem to make moss grow here in my alkaline clay.

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

  5. Dee says

    26 November, 2007 at 4:12 pm

    Kathryn,

    Thank you for your always kind and thoughtful comments.

    dlyn,

    I’m so glad you stopped by. Do you like to grow daylilies? I have many, and I’ll be writing quite a bit about them later. Thank you for coming by and for commenting.

  6. dlyn says

    26 November, 2007 at 1:34 pm

    I am new to your site – found you through PW. What caught my eye was your reference to the Gardener’s Reference to growing Daylilies in the “On My Nightstand” sidebar. I will book you and be back to check you out more.

  7. Kathryn Hall says

    26 November, 2007 at 9:17 am

    This is a lovely piece, blending early history with current curiosity. Thank you.
    Kathryn

Trackbacks

  1. Red Dirt Ramblings » Blog Archive » Welcome To The Seedy Grass Motel says:
    18 June, 2008 at 10:33 am

    […] we set up a little hacienda in the unmulched areas of her garden. On the left, check out her Lewis & Clark meadow that she planted last fall. She didn’t mulch it because she was trying to give the prairie […]

Primary Sidebar

About Dee

Hi, I’m Dee, a professional garden writer and speaker born and raised in Oklahoma. Here you’ll find all my best dirt on gardening and travel. Welcome!

Read More

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Subscribe Here To RDR Updates.


* indicates required
Email News
Email Format

Garden Coaching

Garden Coaching

Grow a beautiful and manageable garden with personalized pointers from Dee!

Learn More

Give my podcast a listen!

Our podcast logo! The Gardenangelists.

Search me baby!

Travel

It's time to get the leaves off of the pansies.

It’s time to plan for next year’s garden

9 November, 2022 By Dee Nash

Yes, I know we're all exhausted from the summer from hell in Oklahoma and Texas--or is that just me? But it's time to start planning for next year's dream garden. Trust me, it's time, and who knows? Maybe next Read More

Fun days at the daylily national convention

16 July, 2022 By Dee Nash

For July's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, I want to share my visit to the daylily national convention. A region of the American Daylily Society puts on the AHS National Convention each year. Region 15 put on this Read More

Road trip to Yellowstone National Park

28 October, 2019 By Dee Nash

Bill and I traveled all summer. I'm not gonna lie. It was tons of fun, but after getting back from our road trip to Yellowstone National Park last month, I am tired and will be staying home for a while. I Read More

GOW Footer Widget Header

Ask me a question!

Please feel free to ask me a question here or at my email addy: dee@deenash.com.
I’ll try to answer every question and get back to you as quickly as possible.

Contact Us

Footer

Blogs I Dig

  • Clay and Limestone–TN
  • Cold Climate Gardening–NY
  • Dirt Therapy–PNW
  • Each Little World
  • Faire Garden–TN
  • Greenbow–IN
  • Growing With Plants
  • Joanne's Cottage Garden
  • May Dreams Gardens–IN
  • Redeem Your Ground
  • Rock Rose–TX
  • Toronto Gardens–Canada

Red Dirt Sisters

  • Curtiss Ann Matlock
  • The Not Always Lazy W

Follow Us!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Let’s bring back the Monarchs

Let’s bring back the Monarchs
For more info about speaking and other work, visit my other website!

Dear Friend and Gardener

Join our virtual garden club and share all summer

Join our virtual #garden club and share all #summer

Disclosure Notice

Red Dirt Ramblings participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com and its affiliates.

Occasionally, I also accept some garden items for review. If I review one of these items, I will let you know in the post. Thank you.

© Copyright 2023 Reddirtramblings.com · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Sitemap

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT